Woman at church, 2 others killed by Pa. gunman
HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A man fatally shot a woman decorating for a children's Christmas party at a tiny church hall and killed two men elsewhere in a rural central Pennsylvania township Friday before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers.
The woman had cooked food the day before for the funeral of Juniata Valley Gospel Church's longtime pastor, said the Rev. James McCaulley, his brother. The central Pennsylvania church was still reeling Friday from the Rev. David McCaulley's death when the woman returned to decorate the church hall - named after the pastor of 58 years - and bullets ripped through a window, he said.
The gunman then entered and shot one of two women before he left, the Rev. James McCaulley said.
Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said that there "might be some relation" between at least two of the victims but that they were shot at multiple places in and around the tiny village in Geeseytown, about 70 miles west of Harrisburg. The names of the victims and the gunman weren't immediately released.
The shootings began in Frankstown Township at about 9 a.m. and troopers encountered the gunman as they sped to the township from their barracks in nearby Hollidaysburg, Consiglio and state police said.
State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said troopers responded to a 911 call of a shooting in the township - though she couldn't immediately say if that was at the church or elsewhere - when they heard calls reporting at least one other shooting elsewhere.
Authorities said at a news briefing Friday afternoon that investigators were processing five crime scenes within about 1.5 miles of each other.
Two troopers driving to the scene of one shooting were fired upon by the driver of a pickup truck headed in the other direction, and the truck smashed head-on into a cruiser driven by a third trooper. The truck driver - believed to be the gunman who killed the other victims - exited the truck and immediately fired at the troopers, who returned fire and killed him, Finn said.
All three troopers were being treated at a hospital for what Finn called "non-life threatening injuries."
One trooper was hit by two bullets, one that hit the body armor on his chest and the other which wounded the trooper's wrist, Finn said. A second trooper was hit by shattered glass and shrapnel. Those two troopers were expected to be released from the hospital Friday.
The third trooper was being evaluated for injuries he suffered from the head-on crash with the gunman's truck.
McCaulley, who is the pastor of another church about 50 miles away from the site of Friday's carnage, said his older brother began leading the Frankstown church in 1954.
"He preached his last sermon at the church in October before he fell ill," McCaulley said.
The church, which lists about 150 members in an online want ad posted this month for an associate pastor, is close-knit and the woman killed Friday was among its more active members, McCaulley said. She had made food for him to bring home Thursday since his wife had died this year, he said.
"The only thing I can say good at this time is that (the gunman) didn't do this 24 hours earlier when there was a big crowd in the church hall," McCaulley said. "We're devastated."
The woman had cooked food the day before for the funeral of Juniata Valley Gospel Church's longtime pastor, said the Rev. James McCaulley, his brother. The central Pennsylvania church was still reeling Friday from the Rev. David McCaulley's death when the woman returned to decorate the church hall - named after the pastor of 58 years - and bullets ripped through a window, he said.
The gunman then entered and shot one of two women before he left, the Rev. James McCaulley said.
Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said that there "might be some relation" between at least two of the victims but that they were shot at multiple places in and around the tiny village in Geeseytown, about 70 miles west of Harrisburg. The names of the victims and the gunman weren't immediately released.
The shootings began in Frankstown Township at about 9 a.m. and troopers encountered the gunman as they sped to the township from their barracks in nearby Hollidaysburg, Consiglio and state police said.
State police spokeswoman Maria Finn said troopers responded to a 911 call of a shooting in the township - though she couldn't immediately say if that was at the church or elsewhere - when they heard calls reporting at least one other shooting elsewhere.
Authorities said at a news briefing Friday afternoon that investigators were processing five crime scenes within about 1.5 miles of each other.
Two troopers driving to the scene of one shooting were fired upon by the driver of a pickup truck headed in the other direction, and the truck smashed head-on into a cruiser driven by a third trooper. The truck driver - believed to be the gunman who killed the other victims - exited the truck and immediately fired at the troopers, who returned fire and killed him, Finn said.
All three troopers were being treated at a hospital for what Finn called "non-life threatening injuries."
One trooper was hit by two bullets, one that hit the body armor on his chest and the other which wounded the trooper's wrist, Finn said. A second trooper was hit by shattered glass and shrapnel. Those two troopers were expected to be released from the hospital Friday.
The third trooper was being evaluated for injuries he suffered from the head-on crash with the gunman's truck.
McCaulley, who is the pastor of another church about 50 miles away from the site of Friday's carnage, said his older brother began leading the Frankstown church in 1954.
"He preached his last sermon at the church in October before he fell ill," McCaulley said.
The church, which lists about 150 members in an online want ad posted this month for an associate pastor, is close-knit and the woman killed Friday was among its more active members, McCaulley said. She had made food for him to bring home Thursday since his wife had died this year, he said.
"The only thing I can say good at this time is that (the gunman) didn't do this 24 hours earlier when there was a big crowd in the church hall," McCaulley said. "We're devastated."
I know the idea of personal freedoms and guns is a hot topic right now and I do want to remind people there are 2 sides to the debate. While I get the knee jerk reaction of if no one had guns we would all be safer but I think that is a rather naive view. The reason is that bad guys rarely obtain their guns in a legal manner. There are too many firearms of various kinds already out there and I guarantee you, bad guys are not going to hand them in or give them up. So weigh that fact against every law abiding, responsible gun owner giving up their weapons and now the bad guys are really the only ones with guns. Police are not there to protect you in reality, they are only there after the fact. Many gun owners have used their weapons to protect themselves and in each of those cases, would likely not have done so well without the weapon. Yes guns can be misused, as you see here, but so can a car and I don't see anyone calling to ban cars every time we hear about an accident, drunk driver or wrong way driver. People can and do use cars to assault. But we need cars, so not going to ban them. Yet more people die in car accidents every year than in gun violence.Â
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What is the answer? I don't pretend to know, but I don't think an all out ban on guns is it. Ben Franklin said "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Another vistory for the uninfringed-upon right to bear arms. Happy, gun-nuts?
NRA guy said the answer is a national database of the mentally ill.Â
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So basically to preserve your 2nd Amendment right, you are going to have to give up all your other rights to privacy and your doctor-patient privilage rights.Â
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These guys are genius I tell you. Â
the head of the NRA, Wayne Lapierre is mentally ill and will be the 1st person on the national register.
 @lakeview So you honestly want mentally ill people who are showing clear signs of being a danger to themselves and others access to firearms? I always personally thought that if someone was clearly a threat to public safety, that their "personal privacy" pretty much ends at that point./it's the same line of thinking we have for registered sex offenders actually.
 @lakeview So do you have the answer? I thought not.
@lakeview The NRA also has no problem attacking "Free Speech"
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Freedom has side effects!
This definitely puts the absolute necessity for mental evaluations before granting any person a CWP. Enough is enough. BTW, such mental evaluations would also define anger management problems or not. Which I suspect lies at a number of the shootings lately.
 @WSims007 Do you really want the federal government going around evaluating everyone's mental health?
 @Rick4001CSÂ
The mental evals would only be conducted by qualified physicians with their expertise in the field.It would not, repeat N-O-T be carried out by the "government".
@Rick4001CS @WSims007 No, I would rather we wait till they kill someone first, then we would have a clue of mental illness. (sarcasm)
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Why do you need to go there? The federal government will not go around evaluating citizens.
Just tighten current laws on background checks, take out the gun show loop holes and no buying guns on the internet.
Also, don't teach the mentally ill how to use weapons like the Sandyhook shooter was by his mother. Or like Kip Kinkel who was mental, and shot his perents with the gun his dad bought him then went to school and killed 2 students.
The guys in Arizona and Colorado bought thier stuff on line.
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Stay focused!
 @snoopy84 Â
As I just pointed out, it would not be conducted by government. And even this would not be necessary if there were already a qualified program for those suffering from whatever mental illness they might have. Tightening laws as well as the rest of what you said would be good as well.
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But as for not teaching, if the parents cannot deal with the problem, and/or don't even have a clue about what is wrong, you expect them to be responsible?
  @WSims007 And who is going to give these mental evaluations and why should said person be trusted?
When did people start losing respect for another person life? This is sad, crazy, and speechless all at once. I will pray for all the people and their family's. May they find peace through all of this.
 @Just my say "Cain and Abel were, according to the Book of Genesis, two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Cain was the first human born and the first murderer, and Abel was the first human to die. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother"......    so, as you can see we have been killing one another since the very beginning.
 @Rick4001CS Thank you so mush, I don't know many story's from the bible and I love to learn them. I am going to have to Google that story now. I go to church and when they start talking about a story I don't know, I am so lost.Â
Where were the responsible armed lawful vigilante civilians?
What the effen hell is going on??!! I know the nuts come of of the fruitcake around the holidays but this is loony!Â
More gun violence, ya having guns everywhere for everyone sure is working great.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654 It's been working okay for me for the last few years. Years of carry, 0  shots fired outside of a range, 0 people shot. It certainly is working great!
STOOOOOOP!!! NOW!!!! No more killing; no more murder! PLEASE!