Officials have released the names for two of three people killed early Thursday near Mt. Lebanon in a suspected murder-suicide.
Ana Tratras, 59, was shot to death inside the Gilkeson Road home she shared with her husband about 2:40 a.m., according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police have said her son, identified by the medical examiner as 25-year-old George Tratras, called 911 in the pre-dawn hours and told authorities he’d killed his parents and wanted to turn himself in. When officers arrived at the two-story brick home, investigators said, George Tratras was initially calm and cooperative. He then, however, opened fire on the officers.
A Dormont police officer was shot in the torso, though officials said his ballistic vest prevented serious injury. A Mt. Lebanon officer suffered a non-gunshot injury. Both were treated and released by Thursday afternoon.
George Tratras hid from police and then took off in a car, investigators said. He was found dead in the crashed car near the Route 19 exit ramp to McLaughlin Run Road. Allegheny County Police investigators, who have taken over the investigation, have indicated George Tratras suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police identified the other person killed inside the home only as a 65-year-old man. The medical examiner’s office has not yet released his identity.
Neighbors expressed shock at the entire situation.
“The strange thing is, and I know this sounds weird, but Georgie was a really nice kid,” said Anne Dryden, who lives next door to the Tratras home with her husband and son. “That’s what makes it so unbelievable.”
Dryden said she and her family woke up to at least a dozen gunshots around 1 a.m. Thursday and called 911. She said authorities advised them to turn off the lights, lock the doors and keep away from the windows.
“We stood there in the living room, the three of us, for about an hour,” Dryden said.
After that hour, they heard more gunshots, she said. She surmised this was George Tratras’s shootout with police.
“His father was in poor health,” she said. “Georgie would come down every week to take care of his father, cut the grass for him. He was a very attentive boy.”
