A Pennsylvania pregnant mother of two was expecting to give birth this week before she was among 9 people who were left dead — including the gunman — in a suspected murder-suicide, devastated loved ones revealed Saturday.
Angelina Stone was killed alongside her three children — 5-year-old son Isiah, daughter Amari’anna and her unborn child Kyrie — and several relatives when a gunman opened fire just before 5 p.m. on Friday at a home in Erie, Pa.
“She was pregnant, about to have her baby in a couple days and she had a daughter that was almost 2 and her son Isiah and they were all just beautiful,” family friend Lisa Simmers told Erie News Now.
Stone posted on social media that her due date was on October 14.
Police didn’t disclose the gunman’s identity. However, the victims’ relatives accused Stone’s father of committing the evening massacre before he turned the gun on himself.
“Angelina’s father killed Angelina and her children in a murder-suicide, and now our family is facing the painful task of laying them to rest,” Aaliyah Williams, the aunt of Stone’s daughter, wrote in a GoFundMe.
The 45-year-old gunman began firing off rounds at the residence on the 700 block of Perry Road in the city’s East Side at approximately 4:53 p.m.
“Her two babies were on the spectrum. Innocent children, couldn’t have told on that man if they wanted to, and he still killed them,” Simmers told CBS Pittsburgh. “A crime like that, what do you say? A person kills two innocent children, a pregnant woman and the people coming to try to help her.
“It’s mind-blowing to me to understand what was happening in that house while we were standing outside. The feeling of helplessness and knowing we couldn’t do anything and she was right there,” Simmers added.
Little Amari’anna’s father, Juicesiyah Alexander Ezekiel, held back tears as he grieved the toddler’s death.
“It was my baby, bro, and he just took her,” Ezekiel told Erie News Now. “Her name was Amari’anna. She’s the most beautiful baby God could have created.
“I wouldn’t even put this on my worst enemy,” he said. “It’s sickening.”
Ezekiel revealed he had been fighting depression after surviving a homicide in Erie back in 2022 before moving away from the area.
“I’m so broken, man,” he said. “I left Erie to stay away from that lifestyle, and I come back and lose my daughter, lose my baby mom, lose who I was fighting to stay alive for.”
Police responded to the home after receiving reports of the shooting from the city’s ShotsSpotter system.
Two females, aged 37 and 51, were found outside in the street suffering from gunshot wounds when officers arrived at the home.
The gunman barricaded himself inside the house and created a standoff with police as officials waited for a search warrant to enter the home, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said during a press conference.
Eventually police entered the home and found Isiah, Amari’anna and a 10-month-old girl on the first floor, Erie News Now reported.
Stone was found dead alongside a 44-year-old woman and two men, 19 and 21, on the second floor.
“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Lorah said.
The gunman died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Eight of the nine victims were related with the ninth identified as a family friend.
Lorah believes “mental health is at play here,” but did not provide a motive behind the killings.
