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A Philadelphia man gunned down his mom and sister, set their home on fire and then barricaded himself inside a city bus during an hours-long standoff with authorities that only ended when he turned the gun on himself, according to police and reports.
The shocking rampage began in the early morning hours Monday when emergency responders rushed to a house fire in the Cedarbrook neighborhood around 3:40 a.m. and discovered the bodies of two women inside, ABC 6 Action News reported.
The women – identified by family as Sadie Turner and Gabby Turner – were pulled from the blaze by Philadelphia firefighters and were both discovered with bullet wounds to the head, cops said.
Sadie’s adopted son and Gabby’s biological brother, Lonnie Turner — also identified by relatives — is believed to have shot the pair inside the home they all shared before he started a kitchen fire, according to investigators.
A little over an hour later, around 5 a.m., cops got a call for an armed man onboard a Route 18 SEPTA bus in the Fox Run neighborhood.
“[T]he man told the bus driver that he was not getting off the vehicle and to call the police,” Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority spokesperson Andrew Busch told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“The other passenger exited the bus without incident and the operator did as well after calling for assistance,” Busch said.
The gunman, later ID’d as Lonnie, allegedly told the bus driver that he had shot two people earlier that morning, Action News reported.
When cops arrived, Lonnie, armed with a handgun, barricaded himself inside the city bus, which was empty at that point, and refused to get off.
A nearly 12-hour standoff ensued as police tried to coax him off the bus to no avail.
Lonnie eventually shot himself shortly before 5 p.m. and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The killer had been released from jail just months earlier, relatives told Action News.
It’s unclear what led up to the violence. An investigation is ongoing, the Philadelphia Police Department said.
The deadly spree comes days after a “brutal, senseless, horrific” ambush that killed one Philadelphia police officer and seriously wounded another.
