A pregnant mother of two from Erie, Pennsylvania, was days from giving birth when she was killed alongside her children and several relatives in a shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, authorities and family members said.
Angelina Stone died with her 5-year-old son Isiah, her daughter Amari’anna, and her unborn child, whom the family had named Kyrie, when gunfire broke out just before 5 p.m. Friday at a home on the 700 block of Perry Road in Erie’s East Side.
“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 had shared on social media that her due date was October 14.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said the gunman, 45, was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police have not publicly identified him, but relatives of the victims have said Stone’s father carried out the shooting before turning 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 post set up for the family.
Police said they were alerted to the shooting by the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system. When officers arrived, they found two women, ages 37 and 51, in the street outside the home with gunshot wounds. The gunman then barricaded himself inside, prompting a standoff while police waited on a search warrant before entering.
Once inside, officers found Isiah, Amari’anna and a 10-month-old girl on the first floor. Stone was found on the second floor along with a 44-year-old woman and two men, ages 19 and 21.
“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Lorah said at a press conference.
Eight of the nine people killed were related to one another; the ninth was identified as a family friend. Lorah said he believes “mental health is at play here” but has not offered a specific motive for the shootings.
Family describes the children
Simmers told CBS Pittsburgh that both of Stone’s children were on the autism spectrum.
“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 said. “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.”
Simmers said she and others were standing outside the home while the shooting unfolded, unable to help.
“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,” she said.
Juicesiyah Alexander Ezekiel, the father of Amari’anna, spoke to Erie News Now through tears.
“It was my baby, bro, and he just took her,” Ezekiel said. “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. It’s sickening.”
Ezekiel said he had struggled with depression after surviving a homicide in Erie in 2022, which led him to move away from the city.
“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.”
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