WEBSTER, New York: A former convict set a house and car ablaze in his lakeside New York state neighborhood to lure firefighters then opened fire on them, killing two and engaging police in a shootout before killing himself while several homes burned. Authorities used an armored vehicle to evacuate the area.Police didn’t immediately know a motive. They said the gunman’s sister was unaccounted for.

Police said the gunman, 62-year-old William Spengler, shot at the arriving firefighters, probably with a rifle from atop an earthen berm.

“It does appear it was a trap,” town Police Chief Gerald Pickering told a news conference. “These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires. They don’t expect to be shot and killed.”
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