Multiple people, including children, were unaccounted for following a house fire and shooting that wounded two police officers Wednesday at a suburban Philadelphia home, authorities said.
Officers from East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, and Upper Darby responded to a 911 call reporting that an 11-year-old girl had been shot Wednesday afternoon, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said. After arriving at a house in East Lansdowne, about 5 miles west of downtown Philadelphia, Stollsteimer said officers "immediately" came under gunfire from the property.
Two officers were injured, including one who was shot in the arm and other in the leg, officials said. Stollsteimer declined to identify the officers, citing privacy, but said they worked for the East Lansdowne and Lansdowne departments.
The three-story house was then set on fire by an "individual inside," he said. Large flames were seen rising from the roof and top floor of the property before spreading to the lower levels, gutting the structure.
Stollsteimer said later Wednesday that authorities have locked down the scene but are waiting for the fire to be extinguished for further investigation. He later added that six to eight people, including children, were unaccounted for.
"I will say with a heavy heart that we are afraid there might be more than one person in that house," Stollsteimer said during a news conference Wednesday evening. "We know the victim's family had a lot of people living in that house, including children."
"It is our terrible fear that they may (have been) inside that house when it was burned," he added. "We are hopeful that that is not true, but we will not know until tomorrow morning."
Developing into the evening.For more updates, sign up for the USA TODAY Evening Briefing newsletter.
By Wednesday evening, Stollsteimer said the fire had smoldered and smoke was still rising from the wreckage as firefighters worked the scene. The side of a neighboring home was also charred and the entire block was evacuated, according to the district attorney.
There was no immediate information on the conditions of the individuals who may have been inside the home, including the child who was reported wounded. The whereabouts of the person who fired at the officers also weren’t clear, but Sollsteimer said there were "no threats to the community from that house."
"We don’t know who was in the house, we don’t know who the shooter was, we don’t know how many people are in there, we don’t know their status, we don’t know if they’re alive," Stollsteimer said.
Authorities said they would search the home Thursday once the fire was cleared.
Contributing: The Associated Press
2024-12-26 12:26506 view
2024-12-26 12:091393 view
2024-12-26 12:03263 view
2024-12-26 11:321100 view
2024-12-26 10:412980 view
2024-12-26 10:371015 view
"Vanderpump Rules" star James Kennedy has been arrested for domestic violence.In a statement to USA
HONOLULU (AP) — The federal government is funneling millions of dollars to a University of Hawaii in
We independently selected these deals and products because we love them, and we think you might like