Copkiller in Pittsburgh guns down three officers

UNITED STATES - Today three police officers have been killed by a gunman in Pittsburgh - the second mass shooting in the US in the last 24 hours. The three dead officers are Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years and the other two only two years each. Another officer was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.

The officers were the first Pittsburgh city officers to die in the line of duty in 18 years. (The last Pittsburgh police officers killed in the line of duty were Officers Thomas L. Herron and Joseph J. Grill, who died after their patrol car collided with another vehicle while chasing a stolen car on March 6th, 1991.)

Today's shooting is one of the biggest police death tolls since September 11th 2001 and a similar shooting in Oakland California 2 weeks ago.

The officers were responding to an emergency call from the house of the gunman, 23-year-old Richard Poplawski, who was arrested after a four-hour standoff.

Police said he was waiting, armed with multiple assault rifles (including an AK-47), a bulletproof vest, a .357 Magnum handgun, several other handguns and "enough ammunition to take on a small army". He shot and killed two officers as they entered the house, and a third who tried to help them.

Poplawski then traded gunfire with police for four hours before being injured and giving himself up.

Gail Moschetti, who lives diagonally across the street from the Poplawski house, said she heard hundreds of shots as she and her husband took refuge in their basement. Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he came to the scene and heard "hundreds, just hundreds of shots."

Poplawski's friends said he had recently lost his job, and was worried that US President Barack Obama was about to ban assault rifles. (I agree, his logic doesn't make much sense.) Poplawski's best friend Edward Perkovic said Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."

Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which Poplawski said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."

Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."

The shooting comes a day after a immigrant gunman killed 13 people in New York state, because he had lost his job and had poor English.

In a televised press conference, Pittsburgh Police Chief Nathan Harper said it was a "very sad day" for the city. "Our hearts and our prayers go out to the officers who paid the ultimate sacrifice," he said.

Chief Harper said the emergency call had been made by the gunman's mother, who had apparently stayed in the basement of the house during the whole incident, and had learned her son intended to going on a shooting rampage.

According to Pittsburgh Police Chief Harper the gunman had been "lying in wait", and the first two officers who reached the house were shot in the head as they entered.

Poplawski has been charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons violation.

Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. A highschool dropout, Poplawski had recently stopped attending classes to get his GED certificate and was hoping to join the Marine Corps so he could fight overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.