Getting back to reality, Webster police chief says the shooter (apparently only one) is dead at the scene. It's unclear whether he (I presume it's "he") shot himself.

Updated story from the local CBS; this is a case of a felon (manslaughter) with illegal weapons, and also he appears to have had something against firefighters (or it was an awful roundabout way to do "death by cop"):

WEBSTER, N.Y.Police in New York state say a man who killed two firefighters in a Christmas Eve ambush had served 17 years for manslaughter in the death of his grandmother.

Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering says 62-year-old William Spengler was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. 

Police say he set fire to a car and house to lure firefighters to his house on the shore of Lake Ontario early Monday.

When firefighters arrived, he opened fire, probably with a rifle. Two firefighters died at the scene and two others were hospitalized. A fifth first responder was injured.

Police don't know a motive yet.

Police say Spengler ambushed four volunteer firefighters responding to an intense pre-dawn house fire Monday morning outside Rochester, N.Y. Police used an armored vehicle to evacuate more than 30 nearby residents.

The gunman fired at the firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze near the Lake Ontario shore in Webster, town Police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The first Webster police officer who arrived chased the suspect and exchanged gunfire with him, authorities said.

"It does appear it was a trap" for the first responders to the fire, Pickering said at a news conference. Officials said the gunman appeared to take cover to act as a sniper against firefighters.

At a later news conference, officials identified the gunman as William Spengler, a "convicted felon" who was not allowed to possess firearms. They said they did not know how he obtained the gun or guns used in the shooting. [....]

This one was close to home. I'm a small-town police officer's son, and these murders were only seven miles from my house.

I have nothing articulate to say about this. I can't even start.