Erie Shooter Who Killed Eight Was a Grandfather, Family Says

Eight people are dead and the 45-year-old gunman who shot them before killing himself was a grandfather with no outward signs of the violence to come, according to people who knew him, the Associated Press reported in an account carried by The Guardian. The shooting happened shortly before 5 p.m. Friday inside a home in Erie, Pennsylvania. The gunman was related to seven of the eight victims, Erie police chief Rick Lorah said, and took his own life at the scene.

Who were the victims in the Erie shooting?

Among those killed were a one-year-old girl named Amarianna; her mother, who was pregnant; the mother's five-year-old son; and the unborn child, according to the father of the one-year-old, Julius Windham, who spoke Sunday at a memorial outside the home. Police have not released the names of the victims publicly. Chief Lorah said the eighth victim, who was not related to the gunman, was a friend of the pregnant woman.

Mourners gathered Sunday outside the Erie home, leaving candles, flowers and stuffed animals at the site, the AP account says. Windham wore a T-shirt printed with photos of the slain woman and children and the words "Forever in my heart."

Who is the Pennsylvania shooter accused in the killings?

Authorities have not released the gunman's name. What is known, per the Guardian's reporting of the AP account, is that he was 45 years old, a grandfather, and related to most of the people he killed. Chief Lorah's description of the family relationship is the only official detail so far tying the shooter to seven of the eight dead.

People who knew him told the AP he had not shown signs he was capable of this kind of violence — a description that sits alongside Windham's own, sharper assessment of the man.

What did the victim's father say about the gunman?

"I think that was a front for him," Windham said of the shooter's outwardly normal demeanor, according to the AP. "Him every day, him smiling and being just — you would think of nothing like that would happen."

Windham, whose one-year-old daughter was among those killed, described the toll on him and the people around him. "Words can't even explain what I'm going through right now," he said. "But I gotta be strong for my community, you know what I'm saying? My family, my daughters, my sons, everybody."

A family friend offered a separate line on how the victims should be remembered, telling Cleveland 19 News, as cited in the Guardian's report, that "we don't want that dark memory to be what defines their lives in this world."

Has Erie police identified the shooter or released more details?

Not publicly, as of the Guardian's Sunday report. Chief Lorah has confirmed the gunman's relationship to seven of the eight victims and the fact that he killed himself at the scene, but police have withheld both the shooter's name and the names of those killed. No motive has been given in the material reviewed for this story.

The absence of an identified motive leaves open the central question raised by people who knew the gunman and by Windham himself: whether a man described by acquaintances as outwardly unremarkable was concealing distress, or whether his composure, as Windham put it, was simply "a front."

What happens next in the investigation?

The source material reviewed for this story does not detail next steps in the investigation, including whether police plan to release the shooter's identity, the victims' names, or any findings on motive. Erie police chief Rick Lorah has been the primary official voice confirming details so far, through statements reported by the Associated Press and relayed by the Guardian.

For now, the public record consists of the chief's confirmation of the family relationship between gunman and victims, the toll of eight dead plus the shooter, and the accounts of people — family and acquaintances — who say nothing about the man signaled what was coming.