The story as it broke in the news:
Police in New York state say a man who ambushed firefighters had served 17 years for manslaughter in the death of his grandmother.
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says 62-year-old William Spengler was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
Police say he set fire to a car and house to lure firefighters to his house on the shore of Lake Ontario early Monday.
When firefighters arrived, he opened fire, probably with a rifle. Two firefighters died at the scene and two others were hospitalized. A fifth first responder was injured.
Here is a comment on the Twitterverse fairy-tale land of liberals from Breitbart:
While liberals on Twitter pointed at the shooting of four firefighters in upstate New York as evidence that more gun control is necessary, NBC News reports that the gunman, one William Spengler, was already banned from owning guns.
Spengler served 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother with a hammer in 1980. He was convicted only of manslaughter, and was paroled in 1998. It seems that stronger sentencing for convicted murderers might be a more worthwhile goal of liberals seeking to prevent gun violence.
In the story linked to the picture of the suspect… the gun, almost identical to the one used in the Sandy Hook murders, was described as an “assault weapon/rifle.” These are already banned. This is a wrong description, but the continued killing was halted when an off-duty policeman showed up:
Several firefighters went beneath the truck to shield themselves as an off-duty police officer who came to the scene pulled his vehicle alongside the truck to try to shield them, authorities said.
The first police officer who arrived chased and exchanged shots with Spengler, recounting it later over his police radio.
“I could see the muzzle blasts comin’ at me. … I fired four shots at him. I thought he went down,” the officer said.
At another point, he said: “I don’t know if I hit him or not. He’s by a tree. … He was movin’ eastbound on the berm when I was firing shots.” Pickering portrayed the officer as a hero who saved many lives.