Pennsylvania shooting: man kills neighbour, ambushes and wounds two state troopers
The boyfriend of the woman who was killed, Lori Wasko, called 911 from their home near Thompson, in Susquehanna county, to report that shots had been fired, state police Col. Christopher Paris told reporters. Police did not say why Carmine Faino decided to kill 57-year-old Wasko outside her home and then fire at responding troopers Joseph Perechinsky and William Jenkins.
Faino also fired at police vehicles and at an SUV operated by a responding emergency worker, Paris said. The EMT was injured when his vehicle veered off the roadway.
'I don't want to speak to his motive leading up to this. I would say you can draw certain conclusions from the standpoint that we believe Faino shot our victim prior to our arrival and then from a position of tactical advantage fired dozens and dozens of rounds', Paris said. Investigators are looking into Faino's past.
Both troopers were in stable condition with serious injuries Thursday night, he said.
Paris said the troopers 'were dispatched to check the welfare of an individual. And there was additional information about shots being fired. But upon their arrival, they were immediately fired upon and ambushed. They are very lucky to be alive'.
Perechinsky applied a tourniquet to Jenkins, and two other troopers were able to help rescue them, Paris said. He praised Perechinsky for providing first aid to his colleague after they were shot and for working while wounded to prevent further injuries or death.
'Perechinsky was able to commandeer a tractor-trailer that was driving by, and he ordered the driver of that tractor-trailer to pull his semi rig across the roadway so that more people would not drive down that roadway and potentially be subjected to the fire', the police spokesperson said.
Perechinsky was 'still thinking at that point in time, after being shot twice in the chest, what can I do to secure this location? What can I do to make sure nobody else gets hurt?' Paris added.
The troopers were flown to hospitals for medical care.
Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, called the two troopers heroes and said Perechinsky 'saved lives'.
'He acted decisively. He acted thoughtfully. And the work he did today exemplifies the absolute best of the Pennsylvania state police', Shapiro said.
Faino had a rifle and did not comply with demands, a state police statement said. He was 'ultimately shot and killed during the incident', police said.
The shooting happened about 5 miles north of the borough of Thompson, 163 miles north of Philadelphia.
Erika Mills, who lives less than a mile from where the shootings took place, said it made for a terrifying day in a community that is usefully peaceful.
'This is a very very quiet town. There has never been anything comparable', she said.
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LEADING murder suspect Nicolas Claux into his Parisian apartment, investigators recoiled in disgust at the horrors that lurked inside - with one fleeing the scene to be violently sick. Jars containing the remains of human foetuses lined shelves, the fridge was stocked with bags of blood, and an 'altar' constructed out of skulls and bones adorned one of the walls. 13 13 The then 22-year-old had been arrested in 1994 outside the French capital's famous Moulin Rouge cabaret following a month-long manhunt, after he shot restaurateur Theirry Bisonet, 34, in the head multiple times. Claux had posed as a 16-year-old on a sex forum to find someone to kill, and planned to carve off chunks of 'meat' from his body to consume, but was disturbed and fled. The chilling discovery in his flat led to him being unmasked as a murderous cannibal - dubbed 'The Vampire of Paris' - who took sick pleasure in eating the flesh of humans. His decade-long macabre obsession with the dead saw him break into crypts, mausoleums and coffins to steal grisly souvenirs including a skull. This twisted fantasy would develop into cutting strips of flesh from dead people while working as a hospital mortician, and eating it raw or taking it home to fry up in a pan. Claux was jailed for 12 years in May 1997 for murdering Thierry - but was released after eight. As part of our Meeting a Monster series, The Sun tracked down killer Claux - who now claims to be a reformed character who is no longer a threat to society, and spends his time writing books about psychopaths and serial killers. But chillingly he admits he is "still the same person I was 30 years ago". He also brazenly brags about going on to work in morgues for 13 years after his release from prison by using "forged papers", and was only discovered after several years each time. During our unnerving chat, Claux, now 53, says he is "relieved" he was arrested for killing Thierry because he suspects, had he got away with his vile crime, he would have likely gone on to commit mass murder. Pathetic last days of Rose West revealed as serial killer monster can barely walk, has no friends & has new fake identity 'I'm glad the police caught me because I was already planning my next murder, just days after the killing, because the first didn't go the way I planned," he confesses. 'I was close to killing my morgue co-workers. I wanted to kill them one by one because I couldn't stand them. I had a really short fuse back then. 'I was escalating so fast, had a total disregard for human life, and absolutely no limits. One investigator said I had the same evil look in my eyes as a French serial killer, Thierry Paulin. 'Before I'd learned to wear a 'mask of sanity', as they say in American Psycho, but after the killing that was no longer the case. If I wasn't caught then, now I'd be dead or in prison for the rest of my life.' 13 Claux's morbid fascination with the occult began at just seven years old, after being exposed to explicitly violent photos and reading books about scarification, blood rituals and demons. He recalls being obsessed with photos from Thailand 's infamous Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden, which depicts different torments inflicted upon sinners in hell. 'They were extremely graphic - people being mutilated, having their tongues pierced, tortured and killed. I asked to see these images over and over again,' says Claux. I was close to killing my morgue co-workers. I wanted to kill them one by one because I couldn't stand them. I had a really short fuse back then. I was escalating so fast, had a total disregard for human life, and absolutely no limits Nicolas Claux Bizarrely he claims it helped him bond with his 'cold and distant' IT developer dad, but in turn it 'cultivated and nurtured a fascination with pain, demonology and the torments of hell'. Claux says his father, who often worked overseas, and mother - who was hospitalised with depression multiple times - were concerned by his 'peculiar interests' but too fixated on their own problems to steer him towards something less sinister. Consuming dark material gave Claux a thrill but also made him feel 'like an alien' compared to other children his age, who loved football, and he struggled to connect with them. One of his only friends was his grandfather, who died when he was 10. Stood beside his coffin at the wake, Claux says his 'senses were overwhelmed' and it felt like there was a "mystical revelation' inside of him. 'I knew I was witnessing something extraordinary, and paradoxically the presence and feeling close to death made me feel alive,' he explains. That feeling would years later lead him to visit graveyards, break into mausoleums and work in morgues, in a sick attempt to reignite 'the thrill of being so close to death'. 'Fantasies about killing' 13 13 13 At 12 years old Claux came across gruesome photographs of the mutilated victim of Issei Sagawa - known as the Kobe cannibal - in a magazine. The Japanese student murdered his classmate Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981, before consuming parts of her flesh and performing necrophilia. 'The magazine was removed from sale very quickly but it showed photos of the victim lying on the morgue slab with most of her flesh missing,' Claux says. 'It awakened something inside of me, a fixation and intrusive thoughts that encouraged these violent ruminations and dreams of doing the same.' When Claux was a teenager his family relocated to Portugal, which resulted in him feeling even more isolated - and fed his obsession with the occult. 'There was a lot of hatred inside of me, feelings of rejection and isolation,' he says. 'I found a violent outlet, fantasising about killing people my age, and I started forming plans. There was a lot of hatred inside of me, feelings of rejection and isolation... I found a violent outlet, fantasising about killing people my age, and I started forming plans Nicolas Claux 'I was bullied because I didn't speak their language. They spread rumours that I killed animals, which I didn't. I couldn't stand them, I just wanted to kill them all. 'I was actually close to doing it too, but each time something went wrong. Once a knife fell out of my backpack at school and the extremely concerned principal warned my parents.' The family moved back to France where Claux spoke to a psychiatrist, but his warped mind was worsening. By 17 he was regularly breaking into mausoleums and crypts at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery, opening coffins and stealing bones for 'decorations'. 'I created this altar with my collection of bones, a few skulls and urns filled with human ashes, I never returned anything,' Claux says. 'It was a place I would truly feel myself, living under the shadow of death. I began using satanic imagery and reading occult books. It was later called devil worship.' Feasting on flesh 13 This longing to be closer to death led him, after 10 months of compulsory national service in the army in 1992, to work in a hospital morgue. There he began tampering with the labels of blood bags so he could take them home to drink - a twisted habit that gave him "a rush' and eventually saw him go a step further and consume dead people's flesh. 'When left alone in the morgue, I would cut up strips of tissue from the abdominal cavity under the ribs and put them in plastic containers,' Claux admits. 'I was eating them raw at first, but then I realised how easily I could take them home to try different things and cook them. I mainly used to fry them. 'It was like cocaine to me and in a psychological aspect, by ingesting flesh, it made me feel totally disconnected from everybody else - like I was a different species, I wasn't human anymore." I was eating [strips of human tissue] raw at first, but then I realised how easily I could take them home to try different things and cook them. I mainly used to fry them Nicolas Claux Chillingly, he adds: 'I never felt any remorse or empathy towards other people back then. My brain was wired differently. "I didn't put any value in human life. Everyone was like cattle that could be slaughtered and eaten.' Claux says he consumed flesh once a week over a five-month period, defiling up to 21 people's bodies - all without their families' knowledge. At 22, his fantasies progressed to killing. He found his victim through Minitel, a forerunner to online chat forums accessible via telephone lines, inspired by his then girlfriend, an 18-year-old professional dominatrix who posed as a 16-year-old on there because clients would pay more for her services. Using a fake ID, Claux went to the public library to access the system and contacted restauranteur Thierry Bissonnier, 34, a closeted gay man. 'I said I was 16 and within two hours I had his address, went to his place and shot him several times in the head,' Claux says, coldly. 'I wanted to shoot someone and bring the 'meat' back to my place, but it didn't go how I wanted it to... my .22 calibre gun made too much noise. "I heard someone running fast in the stairwell and feared they were calling the police. I didn't have time to do what I was there for and I ran." Costly mistake Sickeningly, having forged his ID, Claux then tried to use one of his victim's cheques to purchase a camera to photograph his next murder. Thankfully it proved a costly mistake, as the shopworker realised it wasn't legitimate and called the police - meaning they had Claux's photo connected to the name of the victim. His face was plastered across Paris Metro stations, and he spent a month-and-a-half on the run before police finally collared him outside a nightclub. Recalling his arrest, Claux says: 'On the way, police were talking about a football match that happened a few days before. For them it was a normal case. But when they opened my apartment door, the mood changed dramatically. 'They were extremely silent during the search. The place was filled with bones, I had human foetuses that I stole from the morgues, and the fridge was full with stuff. 'I didn't have human meat inside it anymore, but I still had some blood bags that I had taken from the hospital. They found all sorts in there. 'It was too much for them. Some were silent with unease, others were disgusted, and one needed to leave the room to be sick." 'No limits' 13 All but one of five psychiatrists concluded Claux had a personality disorder, with hints he suffered from psychosis, but not severely enough for him to be found unfit for trial. Claux agrees with their reports on his mental state, and tells us he was 'disconnected from the world, lacked emotions and had a total disregard for human life'. 'I had absolutely no limits with what I was doing and was escalating so fast, without thinking of the consequences,' he adds. 'Feeling so hyped up while eating flesh, drinking blood, I felt like I had superhuman powers and felt down when I wasn't doing it regularly. There is a psychotic element there.' Claux insists he is now able to control his urges without committing crimes, and claims reflection and introspection helped him battle his demons. 'I make different decisions now and I do not believe I pose a threat to society,' he tells us. 'I wouldn't do the things I did again. 'The intrusive thoughts are long gone. I know my limits and found a better outlet for my dark thoughts. I don't want to go down that spiral again.' Chilling confession Claux says he manages his 'urges' through other means now, including collecting occult items and writing books. He's penned 26 books so far and has one in the works about Sergey Golovkin, Moscow's worst Soviet-era serial killer. He says readers "love" the fact he understands murderers' minds first-hand - and also claims to have dissuaded others from going down the same twisted, murderous path he did. Yet he makes a disturbing admission, adding: 'I could have the same public image, 'I've repented, I'm morally pure, so I deserve to be treated like a human being,' but I don't. 'I'm still the same person I was 30 years ago, but now I've learned to express things in a different way. "Maybe that sounds disturbing but it's sincere. And if I can help a few people, who recognise themselves in what I said, then this all has meaning and purpose. I'm trying to show them there is another way. 'Mine isn't a redemption story or black and white. It's shades of grey. "People may call me a monster but I have to find a place in this society - even if some don't want me to. 'I can function without hurting people. I know violence will lead to war and then we lose. Society will win by indefinitely locking us in prison or a mental hospital. 'I'm not going to hurt anyone or commit crimes. It's a survival instinct. I want to survive, I want to remain free and I don't want to go back to prison.' 13 13 13
