A pregnant Pennsylvania mother of two was days away from giving birth when she became one of nine people killed in a suspected murder-suicide, leaving her loved ones devastated, family members said Saturday.
Angelina Stone was killed along with her three children — 5-year-old son Isiah, daughter Amari’anna and unborn baby Kyrie — as well as several relatives after a gunman opened fire at an Erie home shortly before 5 p.m. Friday.
“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. They were all just beautiful,” family friend Lisa Simmers told Erie News Now.
Stone had shared on social media that her due date was Oct. 14.
Police have not released the suspected gunman’s identity. Relatives, however, accused Stone’s father of carrying out the deadly attack before taking his own life.
“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 campaign.
The 45-year-old gunman began shooting at about 4:53 p.m. Friday at a residence in the 700 block of Perry Road on Erie’s East Side.
“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,” Simmers added. “The feeling of helplessness and knowing we couldn’t do anything, and she was right there.”
Juicesiyah Alexander Ezekiel, the father of Amari’anna, struggled to hold back tears as he mourned the toddler.
“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.”
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“I wouldn’t even put this on my worst enemy,” he said. “It’s sickening.”
Ezekiel said he had been battling depression since surviving a homicide in Erie in 2022. He later moved 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.”
Officers were dispatched to the home after the city’s ShotSpotter system detected reports of gunfire.
When police arrived, they found two women, ages 37 and 51, outside in the street with gunshot wounds.
The gunman had barricaded himself inside the residence, triggering a standoff with police. Officers waited for a search warrant before entering, Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said during a news conference.
Police eventually 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 on the second floor 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.
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.
