At least 6 people are missing after a house fire and shooting in Pennsylvania
Between six and eight members of the same family are missing and feared dead after a house fire in Pennsylvania broke out during a gunfight Wednesday that left two police officers wounded, authorities said.
As of Thursday morning, the house "has been burned down whole" and the search for the missing has turned into "a recovery operation," Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer told NBC News correspondent George Solis Thursday morning.
Going through what remains will be a challenging operation that could take days, Stollsteimer said.
The incident started when police responded to a report that an 11-year-old girl had been shot in Lewis Avenue, a suburban street in East Lansdowne, west of Philadelphia, at 3:47 p.m. Stollsteimer said Thursday that the call said someone was shooting the girl inside the home.
When the two officers — one from East Lansdowne police and one from Lansdowne police — arrived at the house, they were both shot once by someone inside and immediately returned fire, police said.
It is not known whether the 11-year-old girl mentioned in the police call or the gunman were inside the house at the time of the fire.
Both officers were dragged to safety by officers from Upper Darby Police Department, using ballistic shields as cover while gunfire continued, police said.
The injured officers were identified by the DA's office Thursday as: Lansdowne police officer David Schiazza, 54, and East Lansdowne police officer John Meehan, 44. Both are 22-year veterans of their departments.
Schiazza suffered gunshot wound to his leg and will be released today at a 3 p.m. Meehan suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and required “a lengthy surgery,” the DA's office said. He’s still being treated.
In a news conference Wednesday night, Stollsteimer said: "We are aware that there are at least six to eight people who are unaccounted for from that family. It is our terrible fear that they may be inside that house when it was burned," noting that children were known to live in the house.
No deaths will be confirmed until investigators can gain access to the property, which smoldered overnight.
Images from the scene show the almost total destruction of the house, with just its external walls remaining. It's unclear when the fire began, but officials said that firefighters were unable to stop the blaze because of the active shooter situation.
"Officers were taking gunfire," Stollsteimer said Wednesday. "Police officers and the fire department who were out there, there was still shots coming out at the beginning of this fire scene."
Where the investigation stands now
As of Thursday morning, authorities are trying to safely enter the destroyed home to discover and recover any bodies inside, Stollsteimer said.
“There’s nobody alive in that house right now. Anybody who is in there is deceased. The question is how many people are in there and how long it’s going to take us to safely go in and recover the bodies,” he said Thursday. “It’s also a crime scene. We’re aware of that as well. There may never be any charges filed if the person who was the shooter is also deceased.”
He said to his knowledge at least two children live in the home, as well as adults, but it’s unclear if more people were there at the time.
“They’re all unaccounted for at this point. Our fear is that they were inside that home,” he said.
What's left of the home is utter destruction: the roof collapsed, walls are gone, and there's multiple feet of water in the basement, Stollsteimer said.
"It's really unstable," he added.
Witnesses heard gunshots and ducked for safety
Sharon Johnson, a crossing guard who saw the police response, described the scene to NBC Philadelphia.
"I was there, a cop came flying around the corner. He got out and then he's in front of the house talking to two people. And then all of a sudden I heard six or seven gunshots. Cops got down on the ground and I ran and took off," she said.
Denise Williams, a resident in the area, said she was entering her car to head to work when she heard gunshots.
“I went into the car, and I had ducked a little bit because I was trying to protect myself because the shooting was going on,” she told NBC News Thursday. “I see a cop on the left side on the next block, I see him got shot actually,” she said.
Williams said she did not see the shooter. She said she believed up to eight people lived in the house and most are kids she believes she previously saw play with neighbors’ children.
“I’m very emotional because that’s horrible. It’s sad, it’s very sad. We never had this around our neighborhood at all,” she said. “I’ve been here almost like 14 years and it’s never happened at all.”
CORRECTION (Feb 8, 2024, 11:22 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the names of two police departments. They are East Lansdowne police, not East Lansdown police, and Lansdowne police, not Lansdown police.
