Shooting in Lebanon kills 3, including 2 children, wounds 4th person

Lebanon Police Chief Bret Fisher,left, speaks as Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello listens during a news conference at City Hall in Lebanon, Pa., Wednesday, May 31, 2023. Authorities say a shooting outside an eastern Pennsylvania home killed three people, two of them children, and wounded another person. (Matthew Toth/Lebanon Daily News via AP)

LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A shooting outside an eastern Pennsylvania home killed three people, two of them children aged 8 and 9, and wounded another person, authorities said.

Chief Bret Fisher of the Lebanon police department said officers responded to a city residence shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday after a report of shots fired.

Mayor Sherry Capello and Fisher said Wednesday that 19-year-old Joshua Lugo-Perez, 8-year-old Jesus Perez-Salome and 9-year-old Sebastian Perez-Salome were killed. The boys are students in the Lebanon School District, Capello said. A 33-year-old man was said to be recovering after surgery.

“It appears, at the early stages of this investigation, that one of the victims was targeted; the other three victims were uninvolved,” Fisher said. Other people besides the victims were also present in the home, Fisher said..

SWAT team members executed a search at a home and took someone into custody who is of interest in the case but was arrested on an unrelated matter, Fisher said. Authorities are working with the county district attorney’s office, which declined immediate comment, and state police.

Fisher declined to say how many people were being sought in the case. He declined comment on what may have led up to the shooting and said he couldn’t say how many shots were fired.

“First let me start with the obvious: These shootings are unacceptable,” Capello said. “As a mom, I cannot overstate how heartbroken I am for these families. … As the mayor, I am heartbroken for our community.”