GEESEYTOWN -- Four people are dead -- including the shooter -- and three state troopers were injured Friday morning in a shooting incident in Frankstown Township, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said.
The gunman and two other men and Kimberly A. Scott, 58, of Duncansville are all dead, authorities said.
The gunman is Jeffrey Lee Michael, 44, of Hollidaysburg, and the other victims are Kenneth Lynn and his son-in-law William Rhodes, sources tell the Mirror.
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Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio talks about Friday's shootings that left four peopl
The shooting deaths are the first triple-homicide in Blair County since 2005 when Miguel Padilla murdered three people outside the UVA Club in Altoona.
Scott was shot to death at the Juniata Valley Gospel Church as she was decorating for a children's Christmas party, said the Rev. James McCaulley, who presided at his brother's funeral Thursday at the church.
State police said they first received a shots-fired call about 9 a.m. Friday.
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Blair County authorities investigate the shooting deaths of three people Friday on Juniata Valley Road. The shooter was killed by state troopers, a state police spokeswoman said.
McCaulley said Scott was shot by a man who first fired shots through the church hall's windows. Another woman decorating wasn't shot.
The church, which lists about 150 members in an online want ad posted this month for an associate pastor, is close-knit and Scott was among its more active members, McCaulley told The Associated Press. She had made food for him to bring home Thursday since his wife had died this year, he said.
"The only thing I can say good at this time is that (the gunman) didn't do this 24 hours earlier when there was a big crowd in the church hall," McCaulley said. "We're devastated."
A second person was shot and killed at a nearby residence, state police Deputy Commissioner Lt. Col. George Bivens said at a news conference.
The gunman then drove off in his pickup truck and crashed head-on into another vehicle, Bivens said. He then shot and killed the other driver.
He also fired at two troopers who responded to the shots fired reports, Bivens said.
A third trooper was involved in a head-on crash with the pickup. The driver exited the truck and immediately fired upon the responding troopers, who returned fire, killing the gunman, state police spokeswoman Marla Finn said.
Two troopers were wounded during the shootout, Finn said.
One trooper was hit in his bulletproof vest and in one of his wrists and another was struck by flying glass when the gunman fired at his state police vehicle, Consiglio and Finn said.
The third trooper was injured in the crash, Consiglio said.
"Someone was watching over them," Bivens said.
All three troopers were released from Altoona Regional, Bivens said.
Family members of the victims said they were told the woman at the church was the first victim shot, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. The gunman then shot two men in the driveway of a home after a confrontation at a stop sign, authorities said.
"This person went to their driveway with a pistol, pointed at them and started shooting," Marie Brenneman told the newspaper, identifying herself as a cousin of one of the male victims. She said both male victims were the shooter's neighbors in Geeseytown.
"They were uneasy around him," she said.
The State Police Troop G major case team was activated and investigators are currently examining five separate crime scenes -- interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence, Finn and Troop G spokesman Trooper Jeff Petucci said.
The five crime scenes include the church, the grounds near the church, the first crash site, the site where Michael shot at the troopers and the site was Michael was shot by the troopers, Bivens said.
Hollidaysburg Area School District schools, particularly Frankstown Elementary School, went into a lockdown mode as a result of the shooting.
Superintendent Paul Gallagher said state police contacted the district about the incident but said there was no threat to students.
Hollidaysburg Catholic School's principal put the school into lockdown mode. said Tony DeGol, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
A prayer service and vigil for the deceased and community affected by the shooting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Geeseytown Lutheran Church, Route 22 and Juniata Valley Road, the Rev. Elizabeth Hess said. Additional parking will be available at the parking lots beside the Geeseytown Community Fire Company's station.
Scott's funeral arrangements are being handled by the John C. Bolger Funeral Home Inc., Martinsburg. Friends will be received from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Martinsburg Grace Brethren Church.
