Six people — three of them children — are unaccounted for in southeastern Pennsylvania after a raging housefire that started with a shootout between a person at the house and police.
Two police officers were wounded in the shooting, and investigators say they have recovered three bodies, one of them believed to have been the shooter, WCAU reported. At least one of the bodies was that of a child.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said that investigators were able to enter the home on Thursday but that the search would take some time because of the condition of the house. A rifle was found by the body of the man found in the rubble, he said.
“This is going to take awhile. Okay? We’re going to be very safe,” he said. “This is a recovery operation. There’s nobody alive inside that burned out hulk of a house.”
Stollsheimer said six members of the Le family — three adults and three children — lived in the house and all are believed dead.
The children’s grandmother, Chin Le, told WPVI that the alleged shooter was 43-year-old Canh Le. She said she heard him having an argument in an upstairs bedroom with his 13-year-old niece and that he said he was going to get a gun.
Chin Le said her husband took her out of the house as shots were fired. He called 911, she said. Chin Le identified the other people in the house as her other son, Xuong Le, his wife Britni Le, and their three children — NaTayla, 17; NaKayla, 13; and Xavier, 10.
A source told WCAU that the oldest child living at the house attended Penn Wood High School, while the other two attended Penn Wood Middle School and East Lansdowne Elementary School.
The incident began shortly before 4 p.m. on Wednesday when two officers responded to a report of a middle school aged girl being shot inside the home. When East Lansdowne Police officer John Meehan, 44, and Lansdowne Police Officer David Schiazza, 54, arrived, a gunman opened fire on them.
Schiazza was shot in the leg, and Meehan was hit in the arm. Officers from the Upper Darby Police Department dragged them to safety as the gunman continued to fire.
“It was because of the Upper Darby Police Department who also responded to that call that these officers are alive today,” Stollsteimer said. “They were dragged out of danger by Upper Darby police officers.”
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said his officers and others used ballistic shields to protect themselves and the wounded officers as they dragged them out of the way.
Schiazza was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon, and Meehan underwent surgery. He is expected to be released by the end of the week.
In the midst of the chaos of the shooting, the house erupted into flames. Officials, who believe the fire was intentionally set, said flames were seen rising from the top floor of the three-story structure and then spread to the lower floors.
“Officers were taking gunfire,” Stollsteimer said. “Police officers and the fire department who were out there, there was still shots coming out at the beginning of this fire scene.”
Police evacuated the entire residential block as firefighters and a SWAT team converged on the scene.
The gunfire eventually stopped, and firefighters had the blaze largely under control by 6 p.m., but it smoldered overnight before investigators could began the recovery operation.
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[Featured image: WPVI screenshot]
