[gatagato]

(Reuters) - A man with a pistol fatally shot three people on Friday in rural western Pennsylvania, one of them in a church, before he was killed in a shootout with state troopers as he tried to flee in a pickup truck, authorities said.

Three state troopers also were injured in their confrontation with the gunman in Frankstown Township, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, shortly after 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), state police said.

The violence in Pennsylvania unfolded as bells tolled and many Americans were observing a moment of silence for the 20 children and six adults shot to death one week ago by a gunman at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Newtown shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also shot his mother to death at their home before going on his rampage, which ended with his suicide and has reignited a national debate over gun control.

The National Rifle Association pro-gun lobby marked the occasion on Friday with a statement urging that armed guards be placed at the nation's schools to improve security.

Friday evening, investigators were still piecing together events behind the deadly shootings in Pennsylvania.

"We don't believe it was a domestic dispute, but we also don't know a motive, because the shooter was not related to any of the victims," trooper David McGarvey, a state police spokesman, said hours after the unexplained slayings.

In fairly rapid succession, the gunman shot and killed a woman inside a church, then fatally shot two men at their respective homes - all within a short distance from each other - before trying to flee in his pickup truck.

He opened fire at two state police patrol cars rushing to the scene as he passed them on a two-lane road and slammed head-on into a third patrol car. The gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police at the crash scene, McGarvey said.

The identities the gunman and his victims were being withheld until their next of kin were all notified, he said.

All three troopers involved in the chase were injured - one from the collision, one hit in the face by bullet fragments and shattered glass, and one who was shot in the chest but survived thanks to a bullet-proof vest. All three were treated and released from a local hospital, McGarvey said.

Another state police spokesman, trooper Adam Reed, said earlier it did not appear that the shooting had any connection to events last week in Connecticut, but added, "that's all still being looked into."

A Blair County Sheriffs deputy talks with an arriving Pennsylvania State Patrol trooper along Route 22 near the entrance to Canoe Creek State Park, in Blair County, Pennsylvania, December 21, 2012


Hollidaysburg Police Sergeant David Gehret (L) and a Blair County Sheriffs Deputy keep people away from one of the crime scenes along Route 22 near the entrance to Canoe Creek State Park


Pennsylvania State Patrol Public Information Officer Jeff Petucce (L), Pennsylvania State Patrol Lieutenant Colonel George Bivens and Blair County District Attorney Rich Consiglio (R) speak to the media at the Geeseytown fire hall in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, December 21, 2012.


People gathered and hugged while being kept away from the scene along Route 22 near the entrance to Canoe Creek State Park, in Blair County, Pennsylvania, December 21, 2012.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8BK0Y520121222

[BigFoot]

Annnnnnnnnnd another. Give it a few hours, we'll see this thread turn into another Gun Debate.

[Mr-Tape]

The weirdest thing about all this is that most people don't recognize these events as false flags(problem, reaction, solution).

The outcome of a school shooting in UK 1996, was a ban on guns.

Disarming the people.

Examples of (could-be) false flag operations:

Problem: 9/11
Reaction: Wants justice and more security
Solution(s): External wars engaged, local security increased, local freedom decreased.

Problem: 7/7
Reaction: Wants more security
Solution(s): Local security increased, local freedom decreased.

[kellyhound]

The gunman has been identified as 44-year-old Jeffrey Lee Michael of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.

The victims are Kimberly A. Scott, 58, William Harrison Rhodes Jr., 38, and his father-in-law, Kenneth Lynn.

[AmericanIllusions]

Originally Posted by Mr-Tape ↗

The weirdest thing about all this is that most people don't recognize these events as false flags(problem, reaction, solution).

The outcome of a school shooting in UK 1996, was a ban on guns.

Disarming the people.

Examples of (could-be) false flag operations:

Problem: 9/11
Reaction: Wants justice and more security
Solution(s): External wars engaged, local security increased, local freedom decreased.

Problem: 7/7
Reaction: Wants more security
Solution(s): Local security increased, local freedom decreased.

We see it plain as day. You can't continue to fool everybody because time tells all. What did 9/11 all all their wars and new laws get us? That answer is what makes us so suspicious, so reluctant to disarm ourselves amongst, what many view as, a tyrannical govt. We won't

[InbredMidget]

not enough dead

[kellyhound]

Shortly before he left his house Friday and killed three seemingly random people in a Geeseytown shooting spree, Jeffrey Lee Michael - a man who'd struggled with tragedy and family disputes for years - called a close friend and told him to turn on the TV.

"He said, 'You've seen things happen in my life before and warned me. Now I'm going to warn you,'" said Bob Socie of Lakemont, who knew Michael for years and considered him "like a son."

Socie said Michael told him: "The war is right here. The hour is here. ... If I don't talk to you again, next time I talk to you will be with the Lord."

It wasn't the first time Michael had spoken in apocalyptic terms, Socie said. Michael, a truck driver who lived with a girlfriend near the church where his rampage began, had become increasingly fascinated by end-of-the-world predictions as Friday approached.

Friday's date, Dec. 21, 2012, was widely discussed as the end of the ancient Mayan calendar and was considered among more outlandish theorists as the day of the apocalypse.

By then, Michael's personal struggles - developing slowly over years - had reached a crescendo.

He'd long struggled with what Socie described as post-traumatic stress after October 2009, when an apparently suicidal woman leaped in front of his tractor-trailer on Route 322 in Centre County.

In February 2010, amid a contentious divorce and custody battle over his two sons, his ex-wife filed for a protection-from-abuse order.

The court order, approved when the family lived in East Freedom, barred Michael from contacting his now-ex-wife and awarded her temporary custody of the children.

The breakup devastated him, Socie said.

In the order, his wife listed more than a dozen cases of alleged abuse: He broke her finger, forced her to have sex with him and kept her from communicating with friends, she said. The order noted that Michael kept guns in his house and told police to confiscate them should he be arrested.

"I'm constantly looking for trucks to pull in or him walking through our front door," she said in the court filing. "He has shown up at my work unannounced and harassed me there."

Socie said the accusations - made in the midst of a bitter marital dispute - didn't square with the Michael he knew.

"Jeff was just a really nice guy. He never wanted to hurt anybody," Socie said. "He was a gun enthusiast, but he never flaunted them, never shoved them in people's faces."

Socie referenced a second fatal accident, one that deepened Michael's personal strain: A car struck his tractor-trailer during a cross-state trip, and Michael saw the driver's body before emergency workers arrived.

"I just believe it took a toll," Socie said.

In recent months, with child-support bills piling up and insurance money from a work injury insufficient to cover expenses, Michael began worrying that he'd be arrested for failure to make payments, Socie said.

Reportedly a religious man, Michael had previously attended the Fields of Harvest Fellowship, a church in Altoona.

Pastor Hud Crossman said Michael hadn't attended in years, though his ex-wife and family still have connections there.

As Michael became increasingly obsessed with the end of the world - watching TV specials, seeking information online and reading the Bible's final chapters, the Book of Revelation - Socie tried to counsel him as best he could.

"I told him, 'We don't have to worry about end times, man," he said.

Concerned about his friend's behavior, Socie said he reminded Michael of the biblical commandments for understanding and forgiveness - noting that those who kill others or themselves can't enter heaven.

Michael didn't heed his advice.