WEBSTER, N.Y. -- A western New York police chief says a gunman who entrapped and shot four volunteer firefighters outside a blazing home is dead.
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says two of the firefighters were killed and two others hospitalized after the ambush on a spit of land on Lake Ontario just northeast of Rochester.
He also says an off-duty police officer who was driving by has injuries from shrapnel. One of the slain firefighters is also a town police lieutenant.
The shooting Monday morning happened in a quiet neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes.
The West Webster Fire District received a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Flynn said.
"When they got there, they started to take on rounds and the initial responders were struck," the sheriff said.
The two wounded firefighters were in critical condition at a Rochester hospital, Flynn said.
The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke billowing away in a brisk wind.
Police say four homes in all were destroyed and four damaged by the spreading flames.
Webster, a middle-class, lakeside suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.
Authorities say that on Dec. 7, 2011, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.
Four firefighters shot, two fatally, in western New York
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Four firefighters shot, two fatally, in western New York
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Four firefighters shot, two fatally, in western New York
