[ad_1]
The morning of the morning, and flames spread destroying the four homes
SPRINGFIELD – A 65-year-old man is dead on a self-inflicted gunshot wound after Springfield police say he opened fire early Wednesday on firefighters arriving to a house fire, which police believe the gunman set.
With firefighters forced to retreat from the gunfire, the flames spread, destroying furnaces and causing damage to a fifth house in the 500 block of Oakdale Avenue. The gunman, who apparently had set fire to his home, then parked in the driveway of a sixth house down the block, firing on the police from behind the vehicle before killing himself.
Springfield Police Lt. Scott McKee declined to confirm the gunman 's identity Wednesday morning.
However, Cindy Watson, a neighbor who lives in the street where the fire began, said she knew the gunman by his first name, Lance. Lance T. Jacobs. These records show that it is worth $ 10,000 in unpaid taxes.
Watson said she heard a big boom early Wednesday morning and went to check on it.
"That house was completely engulfed at that time," she said. "And the gentleman that lives there, Lance, I saw him pull out, go up the street, then I saw him pull out his guns."
500 block of Oakdale Avenue
Watson said she was going back in her house when she started hearing gunshots.
According to McKee, the incident started about 4 am Wednesday. Within minutes of the fire call, Eugene Springfield Fire arrived at the scene of the house fire, which was between Gateway Street and Farm Road Game and only about 200 feet from the Fire Station 5.
"They started setting up their apparatus, charging fire hoses, getting ready to fight the fire, and it was a fully involved structure in this densely populated residential area," McKee said. But before they could start fighting the blaze, a man began shooting, striking the windshield of the fire truck several times.
The firefighters took cover and reported that they were being ambushed. Springfield police officers were also met with gunfire "by a shooter who was wandering around in the shadows next to the house that was on fire," McKee said. Meanwhile, the fire was spreading to other homes.
The officers also took cover, McKee said.
One officer crouched behind the silver Ford Escape parked in Watson's driveway, where he was pinned down. Watson said the gunfire broke up in his second door, and his neighbor's garage door had several teeth caused by the shooting.
Eugene Police and the County Lane sheriff's deputies rushed to the scene, and Eugene Police in an armored BearCat vehicle evacuated the Springfield officer.
Police then moved to where the shooter was last seen.
"They have heard of the alleged gunman on the ground, deceased, apparently the victim of self-inflicted gunshot wound," McKee said.
Police believe the man primarily used a shotgun in the shooting but also had a handgun. He appeared to have died of a shotgun blast.
After the man was found dead, police officers picked up fire, and firefighters could redeploy him, McKee said. However, the burning homes could not be saved.
Residents of the burning homes were all believed to be evacuated, and no one else was hurt, McKee said.
American Red Cross officials said Wednesday that six people and one pet were affected by the fire.
"It could have been a heck of a lot worse," McKee said.
Police believe that the man intentionally started the fire in his home – which was one side of a tandem house – to draw emergency responders into an ambush, McKee said. The fire also destroyed the adjoining home.
In a social media post made at 2:27 a.m. Wednesday, a message on the Jacobs' Facebook page discusses recent health struggles and longstanding "emotional trauma."
A relative of Jacobs who had not heard about this incident in the past, said that Jacobs had been "kind of isolated from the rest of the family" and had struggled with recent psychological problems. She said she believed in a number of firearms.
At sunrise Wednesday, smoke was still visible rising at least one of the houses.
Samantha Smith, another neighbor who lives across the street from the homes that burned, said the shooting woke her and her 17-year-old daughter. "I just left behind," she said, adding that police used her backyard to get a clear sight on the shooter.
Smith's husband, Christopher Smith, was at work at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend and came home at 7 a.m.
The Smiths say the older couple who live on the other side of the destroyed tandem house collect antiques.
"They got along with just a suitcase and their car," Christopher Smith said. "They lost all of their antiques. … they're gone. "
"It just makes me want to cry with all the devastation left behind," Samantha Smith said. "We have a very nice, I guess we had a very nice, quiet neighborhood."
"This is unreal," Smith said. "This happens in other places, but not in little Springfield."
Reporter Jack Moran contributed to this report.
This story is developing.
Source link
