6 Killed as Gunman Goes Door-to-Door in 3 Swiss Villages

A gunman stalked through three villages in southern Switzerland, shooting residents as they answered the doorbell. Six people were killed in one of the worst mass murders in Swiss history.

Toting a semiautomatic rifle, the 37-year-old gunman burst in on one family as it was having dinner and shot other victims on their doorsteps during the two-hour spree Wednesday, police said.

The gunman surrendered in tears after the rampage in the villages of Rivera, Origlio and Massagno, which also left six people wounded, some seriously.

Police said they had no idea what motivated Wednesday’s killings and would not say if the gunman, Erminio Criscione, knew his victims. They said he lived in the Swiss canton of Ticino, near the Italian border.

But villagers said he had worked in the butcher shop in Rivera about 13 years ago and had contacts with the people he shot. The six people killed were from two families in Rivera.

Police said Criscione gave himself up without a struggle at a road blockade at about 9 p.m. He was crying as he stepped out of the car, according to a police spokesman.

Under Switzerland’s decentralized government system, gun controls vary tremendously from canton to canton. Many cantons allow anyone to buy submachine guns without a permit.