State College shooting rampage leaves two people, gunman dead
The rampage started at a hotel bar about 2 miles form the Penn State campus.
Authorities say a 21-year-old gunman opened fire at a hotel bar in State College, killing a man and wounding two other people, before breaking into a home while fleeing, fatally shooting another man and then taking his own life.
The initial shooting happened about 10:30 p.m. Thursday at P.J. Harrigan’s Bar & Grill in State College, about two miles from Penn State University’s main campus.
Authorities said Jordan Witmer, of Bellefonte, shot and killed Dean Beachy, 62, of Millersburg, Ohio, at the bar and critically wounded another man as well as a woman with whom he apparently had been in a relationship.
Witmer then drove away from the bar and later broke into a home, where he fatally shot homeowner George McCormick, 83, before turning the gun on himself. Police said McCormick’s wife locked herself in a room and called 911.
Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers called the shootings “an isolated incident,” adding that investigators were trying to determine if Witmer knew either of the men he fatally shot.