Gunman William Spengler Used Bushmaster, Left Chilling Note [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

Source: ABC

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN

An convicted killer, who shot dead two firefighters with a Bushmaster assault rifle after leading them into an ambush when they responded to a house fire he set in Western New York, left behind a typewritten note saying he wanted to "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said.

William Spengler, 62, set his home and a car on fire early Monday morning with the intention of setting a trap to kill firefighters and to see "how much of the neighborhood I can burn down," according to the note he wrote and which police found at the scene. The note did not give a reason for his actions.

Spengler, who served 18 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1981, hid Monday morning in a small ditch beside a tree overlooking the sleepy lakeside street in Webster, N.Y., where he lived with his sister, police said today in a news conference.

That woman, Cheryl Spengler, 67, remains missing and may also have been killed, police said.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/webster-gunman-bushmaster-left-chilling-note/story?id=18062121

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Firefighters were called to a house fire in Webster, N.Y. on Dec. 24, 2012, only to find a gunman. Inset: William Spangler who cops have identified as the alleged suspect. (ABC News/WHAM)