Por Wilson Wong – NBC News
A man in Pennsylvania shot and killed a couple, then ended his life after a dispute while shoveling snow in Pennsylvania Monday, when a severe winter storm dumped over 12 inches in parts of the northeastern United States.
According to prosecutors, Jeffrey Spaide shot and killed his neighbors James Goy and his wife, Lisa Goy, before committing suicide Monday in the morning. The attack took place on West Bergh Street in Plains Township, about 15 miles southwest of the city of Scranton, according to the Luzerne County district attorney’s office.
Prosecutor Stefanie Salavantis said on Tuesday that her office determined no other suspects were involved and considered the incident a murder-suicide. Salavantis said his office will close the case and he is awaiting a report from the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office.
[¿El coronavirus se propaga más fácilmente en temperaturas frías? Esto es lo que sabemos]
Shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, authorities found the bodies of the Goy couple on the street after going to the scene to respond to a shooting report, prosecutors said. According to law enforcement officials, they later heard a shot coming from Spaide’s house. Authorities later determined that this final self-inflicted shot was the one that caused the attacker’s death.
CCTV footage revealed that Spaide and de Goys had word of mouth before the shooting began, prosecutors said.
The video shows the Goys shoveling snow in a parking lot in front of a house. The pair are seen throwing snow across the street, towards Spaide’s estate. After asking the couple to stop throwing snow at his house, all three begin to argue and exchange obscene gestures and words.
Prosecutors said James Goy threatened Spaide and raised his fist, forcing the latter to go home briefly and return with a gun.
While the Goys acknowledged he had a gun, prosecutors said they kept shouting insults at him from the middle of the street. Spaide opened fire and shot the couple before returning home to find another weapon and deliver the fatal shots, prosecutors said. After killing his neighbors, Spaide returned to his home, where he shot himself when the police arrived on the scene.
The Lucerne County Attorney’s Office, the Lucerne County Coroner, Plains County Police, the Plains County Fire and Ambulance Unit, and the Pennsylvania Police Department’s Judiciary took part in the investigation.
These three deaths are in addition to the four others that occurred in the wake of the deadly winter storm that caused flight cancellations, power outages, and the closure of schools and COVID-19 vaccination sites in the Northeast.
In Allentown, Pennsylvania, a 67-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease died of hypothermia after leaving the house, the NBC Philadelphia branch reported. His body was found four blocks away on Monday morning.
In Adamstown, Maryland, a 64-year-old man died after a recycling service truck he was driving hit an icy road around noon, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said.
And according to state police, two people, a 69-year-old woman and a 42-year-old woman, were killed in Pennsylvania in separate incidents on Sunday. The 42-year-old woman was killed in an accident during the snowstorm in Tioga County, and the 69-year-old crashed after slipping in the snow in Bucks County.