Suspect charged with attempted homicide in shootout with police in Millcreek
Authorities including the Pennsylvania State Police and the Erie County District Attorney's Office are investigating an altercation between police and an unwanted visitor at a Millcreek Township residence on Tuesday afternoon that led to a shootout when police said a 26-year-old man began shooting at them and police returned fire.
Police charged the man with attempted homicide and other offenses.
The man, identified in court documents as Keegan G. Baker, was shot multiple times and was taken to UPMC Hamot. He underwent surgery and was reported on Tuesday night to be in critical but stable condition, Lt. Mark Weindorf, crime section supervisor for state police Troop E in Lawrence Park Township, said Wednesday morning.
No officers were shot during the incident, and there were no other injuries reported to anyone.
State police in Beaver on Wednesday charged Baker, of Erie, with offenses including felony counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, arson, burglary, attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and assault of a law enforcement officer. Baker had not been arraigned on the charges as of Wednesday morning.
Shootout and fire
The shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday at a residence at 1045 E. Gore Road. According to authorities, Millcreek police received a call of an unwanted guest at the residence, and two township police officers responded to the address at about 3:30 p.m.
According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Baker, one resident of the East Gore Road address told investigators that he received information that Baker was inside the residence. Baker does not live at the residence and is not welcome there, according to information in the complaint.
The resident remotely viewed video surveillance from the residence that showed Baker kick open the door of the residence and enter it at 3:02 p.m., according to the complaint.
Another resident of 1045 E. Gore Road told investigators that, at about 3:25 p.m., the resident received a text message from Baker that read, "I told you. I hope you enjoy the flames." The resident previously contacted Millcreek police about not wanting Baker at the residence because of threats Baker had made to the resident, according to information in the complaint.
After the two Millcreek officers arrived on scene, they requested additional officers as a man had barricaded himself in the residence. More Millcreek officers and Pennsylvania State Police troopers arrived on scene to assist, authorities reported.
Millcreek Police Chief Carter Mook said five Millcreek police officers were at the scene as a sixth officer, who was not at the location, was on the phone with the suspect. Several state police troopers out of the Troop E Erie station in Lawrence Park responded to the scene, and additional troopers then followed, Weindorf said.
At about 3:35 p.m., officers at the scene noticed the house was on fire, Mook said. At 3:57 p.m., the suspect came out and shots were fired, according to the chief.
Authorities reported that Baker appeared in the doorway of the front entrance of the house and began firing gunshots at the police. The state police corporal who filed the criminal charges against Baker wrote in the affidavit of probable cause filed with his criminal complaint that Baker exited the residence with a pistol in his hand and screamed, "I'll make you famous (expletive)," before firing multiple rounds in the direction of police.
Police returned fire, and Baker was struck multiple times, according to the complaint.
Fire and shooting investigation
Once police secured the scene after the shooting, the Belle Valley Fire Department in Millcreek and other departments, including West Ridge Fire Department in Millcreek and the Perry Hi-Way Hose Co. in Summit Township, were called to the scene to put out the fire, officials said.
The fire was confined to a bedroom in the residence, but other portions of the house received smoke damage, Millcreek Fire Chief Michael Cliff said Wednesday.
A state police fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, Weindorf said. Fire inspectors with the Erie Bureau of Fire were called to the scene on Tuesday night to assist in the investigation.
State police is the lead agency in investigating the shooting, with the probe conducted by members of the Troop D major case team in Butler, Weindorf said. All of the troopers who were at the scene at the time of the shooting are on administrative leave pending the completion of the investigation, he said.
The Millcreek police officers who were at the scene and the officer who was on the phone with the suspect are also off duty to give them time to decompress following the traumatic event, Mook said. The chief said he has addressed the incident with those officers, as well as with other officers on the township department.
Erie County detectives with the District Attorney's Office are conducting a parallel investigation into the shooting, Weindorf said.
The shooting occurred a little more than five weeks after an Erie police sergeant, David Stucke, was shot in the leg as he and other officers responded to an address on East 22nd Street in the city to investigate a shots-fired report on the early morning of July 30.
More: Erie police officer remains stable after shooting. Erie man charged with attempted murder
State police accuse Patrick Gleba, 27, of firing gunshots from a duplex that wounded Stucke and endangered several other officers at the scene. According to investigators, Gleba said he fired the gunshots because he thought someone was trying to break into his residence.
State police charged Gleba with offenses including three counts each of attempted homicide and attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. He is scheduled to appear in court for his preliminary hearing on Thursday.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: PSP, DA probe shootout between police, suspect in Millcreek
