Pa. double-murder suspect killed in SWAT standoff

PHILADELPHIA - A career criminal suspected of shooting five people, two of them fatally, inside a suburban home over an insurance fraud scheme was killed by SWAT team members after a six-hour standoff Monday, authorities said.

Since leaving prison last year, Mark Richard Geisenheyner, 51, had been vowing revenge on Paul Shay, one of the victims of a weekend shooting in rural Montgomery County, authorities said.

Geisenheyner broke into Shay's vacation home late Saturday and said, "Guess you never thought you'd see me again," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said, citing the accounts of two survivors. He then shot five people in the head, killing Shay's nephew and a toddler. Shay, his wife and the toddler's mother remained in critical condition Monday.

Shay and Geisenheyner knew each other from a 2006 insurance fraud scheme that involved Shay's home, Ferman said. She could not immediately provide details.

On Sunday, Geisenheyner went to the home of a friend he had known in prison and talked for several hours about the slayings, offering details not known to the public, prosecutors said.

When he fell asleep, the friend and a companion sneaked out, calling police just before 5 a.m. Monday. Police and SWAT teams surrounded the home in Trainer, making contact with the armed suspect by cellphone throughout the morning.

"He was determined not to surrender, not to end up in a prison again," Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green told The Associated Press.

Green said Geisenheyner was killed after hours of negotiations failed.

"He obviously indicated that he intended to seek revenge against the one victim. There's no explanation that I'm aware of as to why he would have shot at and killed multiple victims, including a 2-year-old child," Green said.

Geisenheyner had a lengthy criminal history dating to the 1970s, including robbery and burglary arrests, Ferman said.

Shortly before 9 a.m., reporters at the scene heard explosions and were told police were shooting tear gas into the home.

Saturday's shootings in Douglass Township, about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, killed 43-year-old Joseph Shay, of Yarmouth, Mass., and New York City, and 2-year-old Gregory Erdmann, of Fall River, Mass.

Paul Shay, 64, owns a plumbing company and lives in the East Village of Manhattan with his 58-year-old wife Monica Shay, who works as the director of the arts and cultural management program at Pratt Institute. They spent their free time at the Pennsylvania home.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Joseph Shay is Paul Shay's nephew and had an extensive criminal record in New York and New Jersey.

Joseph Shay was sentenced in Atlantic County, N.J., to 10 years in prison for drug dealing and was released in 1998, and more recently served nearly two years in prison in New York for grand larceny before his release about a year ago, the newspaper reported, citing court records.

Dan Hoyt, a neighbor of the Shays' in New York, told The New York Daily News that Joseph Shay moved in about a year ago and did construction work for his uncle. "He was trying to help Joseph out," Hoyt said of the uncle.

Paul Shay and the boy's mother, 37-year-old Kathryn Erdmann, who was dating Joseph Shay, have been able to speak to investigators, officials said. They have extensive injuries but are expected to survive, authorities said.

Erdmann, was shot in the head and hospitalized in critical condition.

The homeowners, 64-year-old Paul Shay and 58-year-old Monica Shay, were also critically injured.

At least some of the survivors were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital. Spokeswoman Liz Fulmer said Monday that the hospital wouldn't be releasing any information on them.

Neighbors in the area were told to stay inside and lock their doors after the shooting. And an all-night search came up empty, CBS station KYW reports.

Geisenheyner had a .45-caliber weapon with him Monday, but used a .22-caliber weapon in the Saturday shootings, the prosecutors said. The murder weapon has not been recovered, but authorities have several leads about where it might be, Ferman said.