ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A man whose toddler was among eight people killed in a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania, said Sunday that the gunman was a grandfather who never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary.
“I think that was a front for him,” Julius Windham said as he stood at a memorial to victims of Friday’s shooting, including his 1-year-old daughter Amarianna, her pregnant mother and the woman’s 5-year-old son and unborn baby.
Click to Gallery
In this image from video provided by WJET, bystanders gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
In this image from video provided by WJET, police gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
In this image from video provided by WJET, police gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
People gather at a memorial in Erie, Pa., Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, outside the home where authorities say a gunman killed several people before killing himself on Oct. 9. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
Julius Windham visits a memorial outside the home where authorities say a gunman killed multiple people, including Windham's daughter, in Erie, Pa., on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
“Him every day, him smiling and being just — you would think of nothing like that would happen,” Windham said.
The 45-year-old gunman took his own life. Authorities have not released his name, but Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said he was related to seven of the victims. The eighth was a friend of the pregnant woman, he said. Police have not made their names public, either.
Mourners on Sunday placed candles, flowers and stuffed animals outside the home where the man opened fire shortly before 5 p.m. Friday. Windham wore a T-shirt with pictures of the women and children and the words, “Forever In My Heart.”
“Words can’t even explain what I’m going through right now,” Windham said. “But I gotta be strong for my community, you know what I'm saying? My family, my daughters, my sons, everybody.”
Video and audio evidence recovered by investigators included muffled gunshot sounds coming from inside the home just before two “distressed” women arrived and began pounding on the door, Lorah said. The gunman then came out and shot them as they ran toward him, before returning inside.
Responding officers found the two women dead outside. After deploying a drone and robot, they went inside and found the bodies of the 5-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl on the first floor; two more women and two young men in a stairwell; and the shooter on the second floor.
“Out of respect for the victims and the families, I will not discuss the details of what our officers encountered inside that home,” the chief said at a news conference.
“But I want our community to understand the gravity of what happened and the profound impact this tragedy has had on those involved and on our community as a whole,” he said.
Erie is about 120 miles (190 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh.
Lorah declined to discuss motive but suggested mental health could be a factor. He said investigators would talk to relatives and examine the cellphones of the women who were killed outside the home.
“They knew something was going on at that house,” Lorah said. “We have to figure out what that is.”
Nicole and Debra Eller, whose best friend was among the victims, said they've known the family for more than 30 years. Nicole Eller said the shooter “was a good guy, and then he started going downhill with everything.”
“They were a lovely family. Who would have thought this would ever happen?” Debra Eller said. “Oh my gosh, this is so upsetting. This should have never happened to her or the kids or anybody. His grandchildren, his kids, how can you do that?”
The Erie shooting was reminiscent of a 1982 massacre in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in which a man killed 13 people, including five of his own children.
At a news conference on Saturday, Erie Mayor Daria Devlin addressed a portion of her remarks directly to the victims’ families.
“I am so deeply sorry,” Devlin said. “What happened to you was horrific, and there is nothing that any of us can say today that will make this any easier. ... Our entire community is with you, we’re grieving with you. And we are here to support you.”
In this image from video provided by WJET, bystanders gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
In this image from video provided by WJET, police gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
In this image from video provided by WJET, police gather outside the scene of a shooting in Erie, Pa., on Friday evening, Oct. 9, 2026. (Matt Barnum/WJET via AP)
People gather at a memorial in Erie, Pa., Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, outside the home where authorities say a gunman killed several people before killing himself on Oct. 9. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
Julius Windham visits a memorial outside the home where authorities say a gunman killed multiple people, including Windham's daughter, in Erie, Pa., on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — People in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama cleaned up after Hurricane Isaias swept through as the storm's remnants caused flooding in North Carolina on Sunday, while powerful Pacific Ocean waves stirred up by Rachel, a former tropical storm, battered the coast of Southern California.
In western North Carolina, rivers overflowed as heavy rainfall raised the risk of flash and urban flooding, according to the National Weather Service. It said tornadoes were possible in parts of Virginia and North Carolina as well as dangerous surf and rip current conditions along the Gulf and southeastern Atlantic coasts.
At least four deaths were linked to Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, which came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane Friday near Destin, Florida, a Gulf Coast vacation spot filled with high-rises and tourist shops. The storm then roared into Alabama with tropical-force winds before heading farther north.
In Florida’s Escambia County, Sheriff Chip Simmons said a woman was killed when a tree fell on her home and a man died of carbon monoxide fumes from a generator running in his garage.
One person died when a tree fell on a house in Birmingham, said Cory Moon, the city’s fire chief. A second storm-related death in Alabama was attributed to a motor vehicle crash involving a downed tree in Barbour County, said Josh Johnson of the state’s emergency management agency.
In Burke County, North Carolina, an unhoused male and female were camping when floodwaters from the Catawba River caught them off guard. They were rescued, along with their dog, according to a spokesperson for the county emergency management agency. Separately, a woman trapped inside her car in floodwaters was freed outside of Morganton.
In McDowell County, North Carolina, just west of Burke County, first responders said they dealt with five landslides and voluntary evacuations overnight Saturday into Sunday as they responded to flooded roads and streams overflowing their banks.
Nearly a dozen local weather stations in the western North Carolina county reported torrential 24-hour rainfall totals from about 5 inches (13 centimeters) to as much as 9.57 inches (24 centimeters) at the fire/rescue station in Enola. The weather service said rainfall was diminishing in the area but that rapid river rises and flooding remained possible.
Hurricane-force winds in the Florida Panhandle blew the roof off a Pensacola hotel. The storm flattened a boathouse in Destin and ripped away part of the facade of a high-rise in Panama City Beach.
At a church in Pensacola where the United Cajun Navy was distributing supplies Sunday morning, a line of hundreds of cars stretched around the block. Yvette Haro said she arrived at 5 a.m. after being turned away the previous day because supplies had run out.
With a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter at home, she said it's hard to go to stores and wait in long lines. She was looking for water, paper towels, toilet paper and cleaning supplies.
While her home didn't suffer any damage, the loss of electricity was making things difficult, Haro said. “The biggest thing is our food going bad,” she said.
Fewer than 300,000 customers remained without power Sunday evening in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama, according to poweroutage.com. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expected nearly everyone to have it restored by Tuesday night.
Rachel became a post-tropical cyclone overnight, bringing unusually big waves to Southern California.
Waves battered a century-old wooden boardwalk on the Long Beach peninsula and forced homeowners to evacuate. The strip of multimillion-dollar oceanfront properties, along with much of the Southern California coastline, was already reeling from Hurricane Marie in September.
“This area is completely shattered and vulnerable,” Jack Gordon, a Long Beach real estate agent, said.
The Pacific Ocean is abnormally warm, about 7 to 8 degrees F warmer than normal for this time of year, due to the El Niño weather pattern, said Joe Sirard of the weather service in Oxnard, California
“When we have this warm water, it actually causes the ocean to rise above the normal predicted tide levels,” Sirard said. That's affected by Rachel's ocean swells and wind gusts. The City of Long Beach placed dozens of 3,000-pound (1,360-kilogram) sandbags along the stretch of peninsula where waves tore apart the historic boardwalk and smashed against coastal homes.
Jazmin Evers, a 37-year-old mother who runs a pottery business from her Long Beach rental home, said the community is on edge. “Every time the tide goes down everyone just kind of takes a breath — except, of course, the people whose buildings are being destroyed,” she said. “When the tide comes back up, everybody’s nerves kind of ramp back up.” Rachel dissipated over Las Vegas as it drenched deserts across the Southwest. An inch (2.4 centimeters) of rain fell in the city Sunday, leading to gushing water and flooded streets on the Las Vegas Strip.
Brumback reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Josh Kelety in Phoenix also contributed.
A woman rests from cleaning up the effects of Tropical Storm Rachel along the Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Waves crash by homes and the boardwalk damaged by Tropical Storm Rachel along Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Workers pile sand along Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif., affected by Tropical Storm Rachel. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Waves crash by homes and the boardwalk damaged by Tropical Storm Rachel along Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
A woman rests from cleaning up the effects of Tropical Storm Rachel along the Alamitos Peninsula, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People watch the waves crash along Alamitos Peninsula, brought by Tropical Storm Rachel, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Waves damage a home in Long Beach, Calif., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/William Liang)
Downed trees are seen in lawns in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias in Milton, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Instructors from the San Diego Surf School give surfing lessons to two children in San Diego on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (Denis Poroy/AP Photo)
Onlookers watch as storm driven surf batters the bluffs in the La Jolla area of San Diego on Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (Denis Poroy/AP Photo)
In an aerial view, beachfront homes have damaged decks after waves crashed into them during high tide and storm surge from Tropical Storm Rachel, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
In an aerial view, waves crash into beachfront homes during high tide and storm surge from Tropical Storm Rachel, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Jeff Lundy cuts up a pine tree that fell on his father-in-law's house during Isaias on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in Milton, Fla. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
Baleigh Ziglar walks around downed trees in front of her mother's home in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias in Milton, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Curt Brown picks up debris left by Isaias around his RV home on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, in Milton, Fla. (AP Photo/Octavio Jones)
People salvage the contents of their destroyed mini mart in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias in Milton, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An apartment complex which had its roof ripped off is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias in Milton, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
