Police swarm Pa. home in double-murder manhunt

PHILADELPHIA - Police surrounded a house outside Philadelphia on Monday as they searched for a suspect in a weekend shooting rampage that killed a man and a toddler and injured three others.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that police are in Trainer, Delaware County, on Monday in connection with the execution-style shootings in Gilbertsville, in rural Montgomery County, Pa. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the sensitivity of an ongoing investigation.

The shootings in Douglass Township late Saturday killed 43-year-old Joseph Shay, of Yarmouth, Mass., and New York City, and 2-year-old Gregory Erdmann, of Fall River, Mass.

The boy's mother, 37-year-old Kathryn 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.

A man who lives in the home in Trainer where the suspect is holed up, told KYW Newsradio he knows the suspect, and he called him last night saying he needed a place to hide. He says when the suspect fell asleep, he snuck out and called police. The home has been surrounded since around 4:30 a.m.

He also says the suspect told him he knew one of the victims and was planning a robbery that went bad.

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

The elder Shays live in the East Village of Manhattan, where Paul Shay owns a plumbing company, and his wife is the director of the arts and cultural management program at Pratt Institute.

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.

The nephew recently had an argument with a man outside the apartment building, Hoyt said.

The survivors were unable to speak to investigators after the shooting, authorities said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman and Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green are in Trainer.