ERIE, Pa. — A gunman killed eight people, including two children and a pregnant woman, at a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday afternoon before taking his own life, police said. Nine people, including the shooter, died.
Erie police responded around 5 p.m. Friday to reports of a shooting at a home on the 700 block of Perry Street on the city’s east side. Officers found two women dead in the street outside. After an hours-long standoff with police and SWAT teams, officers entered the home and found six more victims inside, along with the suspected gunman, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said.
“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Lorah said at a news conference.
The Erie County coroner separately classified the deaths of the eight shooting victims — six adults and two children — as homicides and also ruled the death of the pregnant victim’s unborn child a homicide. The gunman’s death was ruled a suicide. That coroner accounting includes the unborn child in addition to the nine people police said died at the scene or hospital.
Officials released the victims’ ages and sexes at a Saturday briefing but withheld their names pending notification of families. Those killed include a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl; two women, ages 51 and 37, found outside the home; and a 24-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant, a 44-year-old woman and two men, ages 19 and 21, found inside. The suspected gunman was a 45-year-old man.
Police said the gunman was related to seven of the eight people he killed; the eighth victim was a friend of the pregnant woman. Counting the shooter, eight of the nine people who died were related. A motive has not been established. Lorah said investigators were considering whether mental health played a role but cautioned that it was too early to determine a motive.
Officials said all of the deaths occurred before officers arrived. Police reached the scene within about three minutes of a ShotSpotter alert at roughly 4:52 p.m. Friday, and officers fired no shots; loud noises heard during the police response came from flash-bang devices used by the tactical team, officials said. Police said they recovered footage from a neighbor’s camera showing two women arriving at the house in distress.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro offered state assistance with the investigation.
Updated October 11, 2026, to clarify the police death toll and the coroner’s separate homicide ruling for the unborn child. The investigation is ongoing, the victims have not been publicly identified, and details may change.
Sources: Associated Press; Reuters; Erie Times-News reporting on the coroner’s rulings.
