Calumet, PA: 1 killed, 2 shot in village of Calumet

Wednesday, June 02, 2010
By Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A gunman fatally shot one woman and wounded two other people before setting a house on fire in the tiny Westmoreland County village of Calumet Tuesday evening, state police said.

State troopers would not release the identities of the victims or the suspected gunman, but they said the woman who was killed apparently just came upon the scene as she was driving through the area.

Late Tuesday night, state police were still trying to piece together the chain of events that played out on a quiet stretch of Route 981 in Mount Pleasant Township.

State police Trooper Stephen Limani said state police were called to Calumet about 7:30 p.m. after neighbors reported hearing gunfire.


When they arrived, they found a woman dead in a car and found two other people who had been wounded. About the same time, firefighters were called to battle a blaze at a home on Route 981 where police had been called previously for domestic disputes.

A suspect was detained a short time later "in the vicinity," Trooper Limani said.

Elijah Mizikar, chief of the Calumet Volunteer Fire Department, said he was cutting his grass when he heard someone yelling for him to call 911.

He looked up the street and saw a man he recognized from the neighborhood walking down the street and holding a gun. He said he watched the man stop a woman who was driving an SUV.

He heard several gunshots from a small caliber handgun and ran up to the car to find the woman shot in the head. When he looked up, he saw a house on fire.

"I'm not real certain what happened. I [saw] she was deceased in the car. The next thing I know, the house was on fire," he said.

Trooper Limani said they believe the woman in the SUV just happened to be driving through the area at the wrong time. They don't know why she was shot.

She was identified as Stacey Feiling, 42, of Mount Pleasant.

"We have no reason to believe that she was doing anything but traveling through," Trooper Limani said.

Late Tuesday night, about a dozen neighbors, including young children, waited in the Calumet fire hall to be interviewed by investigators.

Moriah Balingit: mbalingit@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2533.


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