Autopsy: NY gunman shot self, not hit by police

December 27, 2012 9:29 AM

William H. Spengler Jr., Monroe County Sheriff Department booking photo. (AP)

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(AP) – State police say an autopsy shows the gunman who lured two New York firefighters to their deaths died of a self-inflicted shot to the head and wasn’t hit by return fire from a police officer.

A positive identification of the body found in 62-year-old gunman William Spengler’s burned house hasn’t been made yet. Police believe it was his sister.

Troopers say Thursday autopsies show West Webster firefighter Michael Chiapperini died of a single gunshot and Tomasz Kaczowka died of two shots.

Spengler, who killed his grandmother in 1980, set his house near Rochester ablaze and ambushed the arriving firefighters just before dawn on Christmas Eve. He wounded two other firefighters and an off-duty police officer.

Investigators aren’t yet releasing how the ex-convict got the weapons. He was barred from possessing them.