Police track down shooter in Lyndora
BUTLER TWP — A Lyndora man was captured Monday after authorities say he tracked down his girlfriend at another apartment — and opened fire.
Gage Carrozzi, 22, is believed to have fired seven rounds from outside the Hansen Avenue apartment, apparently through the door, about 8:08 a.m., Butler Township police said.
But the 23-year-old victim suffered only a “grazing wound” to the side of her stomach, police said. She was treated at Butler Memorial Hospital and released.
Charges against Carrozzi were filed Monday night for attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, discharge of firearm into an occupied structure, endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person.
He was video arraigned later Monday night by Judge David Kovach, who set his bail at $300,000.
The shooting investigation eventually led to Carrozzi's duplex on nearby Bessemer Avenue where police believed he could be holed up. Officers eventually stormed the home, authorities said, but only two young children were inside.
Police on the look out eventually caught him under the Picklegate Crossing. He was arrested without incident.
Police were hoping to question him at the station later that afternoon. It was not known if he spoke to investigators.
The incident left neighbors and parents on edge and several nearby schools on lock down.
The ordeal began about 8:10 a.m. when Butler Township police were called for a possible burglary at an apartment building on the 500 block of Hansen Avenue. Gunshots were reportedly heard.
Officers from the township and city arrived quickly but soon after a string of eight police cars — emergency lights and sirens activated — sped away toward Whitestown Road.
They apparently left after police spoke to Carrozzi's girlfriend.
“She told us who (the shooter) was and where he was likely headed,” one officer said.
The woman suffered only the grazing wound. A man also was in the apartment but he was not injured. Detectives later interviewed both separately at the police station.
Their accounts of what happened were similar, said Butler Township Police Chief John Hays.
Soon after the shooting, police were at the apartment where Carrozzi and his girlfriend had been living with two of her children, who are believed to be ages 1 and 4.
Carrozzi is the father of the older child, neighbors said.State police in body armor and carrying rifles and ballistic shields swarmed around the duplex on Bessemer Avenue while assisting township and city police.The road was partially closed by a fleet of marked and unmarked police cars.An officer at some point used a loudspeaker to ask the person inside to come out with his hands up. When they got no response, police forced their way into the apartment.A short time later, an officer came out holding one child in his arm. The little girl was taken to a police sport utility vehicle.Then, another officer came out of the apartment with the second child. Both girls appeared to be in good health.The younger girl was crying but the older one was smiling and appeared happy as police carried them to a woman who identified herself as a relative of the children.When asked what she knew, the woman told the Butler Eagle that “the father shot the mother.” She drove away with the children and another older man in the front passenger seat of a Dodge Grand Caravan.During the related incidents on Hansen and Bessemer avenues, Butler School District officials placed the senior high, intermediate high and vo-tech buildings on lockdownWhile the large contingent of police waited outside Carrozzi's apartment, other troopers drove neighboring roads apparently looking for him.A 42-year-old Lyndora man driving a sport utility vehicle was stopped and briefly questioned at Main and Chesapeake streets. The man said he was driving his children to their bus stop.“(Police) asked who I was,” said the man, who did not want to give his name. “He said I vaguely fit the description of the person they were looking for, and asked if that was my (SUV).”Around the time police were wrapping up their presence on Bessemer Avenue, troopers reportedly spotted Carrozzi underneath the Picklegate Crossing viaduct connecting Hansen Avenue to Route 8.A woman, who asked for anonymity, was home and opened her door to check what the commotion was all about.“The cops said, 'Go back in,'” she said. “Then they stopped me and asked, 'What's your name?”The woman and at least two other neighbors who were willing to talk described Carrozzi in generally good terms.“He's a good guy who watches his kids and takes care of them,” said Steve Deal, a neighbor.“They argue a lot,” one neighbor said of the couple. However, she never saw the verbal fights turn physical.
