Pennsylvania house fire and shooting: 3 bodies recovered
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, who lives 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 on Thursday. “I see a cop on the left side on the next block. I see him got shot, actually.”
Williams said she didn’t see the shooter. She said that she believed up to eight people lived in the house and that most are kids she believes she had seen playing 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.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro thanked first responders.
“I’m thankful for every first responder who ran towards danger yesterday evening, including both officers who were wounded in the line of duty,” he said.
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.
Natalie Kainz, Rebecca Cohen, Antonio Planas and Phil Helsel contributed.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r67Cp5ywq16YvK57zZ6urGelqHqvsdasZqmdnqPAurjVmqWimV2dvLa%2FxGadoqqVYsCpu86toKefXZuurrXLsmSmoaOotq%2BzjJ6YrKxdoa6vv8OorqedXaewr62QbG5xbGU%3D