Cops: Gunman's note boasted he's 'best' at killing

WEBSTER, N.Y. -- An ex-con who killed two firefighters left behind a note pledging to burn down his neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said yesterday.

William Spengler, 62, used the same kind of military-style rifle Mondayas the gunman in the Connecticut school massacre. Another body, believed to be the gunman's missing sister, Cheryl Spengler, 67, was found in his fire-ravaged home.

Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for manslaughter in the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, set his house afire before dawn Christmas Eve, and then took a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle to a sniper position outside, Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.

Authorities say he sprayed bullets at the first responders, killing two firefighters and injuring two others who remained hospitalized in stable condition.

He then killed himself as seven houses burned.

Police recovered a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with a flash suppressor, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26, including 20 young children, Pickering said.

"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," the chief said.

The two- to three-page typewritten rambling note left by Spengler did not reveal what set him off, Pickering said. He declined to reveal its full content or say where it was found, and read only one chilling line:

"I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people." The chief added: "I'm not sure we'll ever know what was going through his mind."

A next-door neighbor said Spengler hated his sister and they lived on opposite sides of the house.

Roger Vercruysse said Spengler loved his mother, Arline, who died in October after living with her son and daughter in the house near Lake Ontario.

Volunteer firefighter and police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, was killed by gunfire, as was Tomasz Kaczowka, 19.

Chiapperini was part of a team from Webster who went to Mastic Beach to assist in the recovery from superstorm Sandy. He, his son, and a third firefighter from the Webster department worked with the Mastic Beach department for about four days dealing with Sandy-related problems and general fire calls, Grover said.

Mastic Beach assistant chief Carlo Grover said, "He was a great guy. Very professional." Representatives of the Mastic Beach department are making plans to attend services upstate this weekend.

Spengler had been charged with murder in his grandmother's death but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter, apparently to spare his family a trial. After he was freed from prison, Spengler -- a felon who wasn't allowed to possess weapons -- had lived a quiet life.