An officer stands guard as people comfort each other near the scene of a fatal shooting at a car wash in Melcroft, Pa., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. (Michael Palm /Herald-Standard via AP)
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A man suspected of gunning down four people at a Pennsylvania car wash was driven by jealousy, according to family members of the shooting victims.
State police said Timothy Smith, 28, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, a .308-caliber rifle and a handgun and was wearing a body armor carrier without the ballistic panels inserted when he opened fire early Sunday morning at Ed's Car Wash in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh.
Twenty-seven-year-old William Porterfield, 25-year-old Chelsie Cline, 23-year-old Courtney Snyder and 21-year-old Seth Cline were all killed.
Smith was on life support Sunday and not expected to survive after suffering a gunshot wound to his head. State police said it was possible that the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.
Authorities would not reveal how Smith knew the victims, but Chelsie Cline's half-sister, Sierra Kolarik, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Smith had developed an obsession with Cline.
Cline shared a meme on her Facebook page last week that read, "After this week, I rlly (sic) need to get taken out ... on a date or by a sniper either one is fine w me at this point." A Facebook friend of hers named Tim Smith replied, "I could do both."
Porterfield's pregnant wife, Jenna Porterfield, 24, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that a state police investigator told her that Smith was a jealous former boyfriend of Cline.
Porterfield said that she was told by family members of other victims that her husband and Cline had spent the past two days together after Cline ended a relationship with Smith. Porterfield said that she and her husband - who were married in November - had been "having some troubles" this month.
"I'm not holding that against Will. We weren't fighting. We were fixing. And if he was with someone else while we were having problems, honestly, I don't care what he did. I'm not going to hold that against him," Porterfield told the newspaper. "I'd give anything to have him back."
State police said Smith was the first person to arrive at the scene and parked his pickup truck on the side of the two-bay car wash. They said he shot Porterfield and Cline when they got out of their car and walked to the side of the car wash.
Snyder and Seth Cline arrived in a pickup truck at the same time and were both shot and killed in their vehicle, state police said. Another unidentified woman in the rear seat took cover in the truck and survived with only minor injuries from broken glass.
Cayleigh Myers said she was friends with Seth Cline, Chelsie Cline's half-sibling, and described the construction worker as "very outgoing, very funny and very smart."
"You always had fun when you were around him," Myers said. "He would give his shirt off his back for you, anything, it didn't matter what it was, what time it was, if you need him, you could call him. He was everything."
Ed Bukovac, who owns the car wash, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that a neighbor called him around 4 a.m. Sunday and said something was wrong at his business. Bukovac said police were on the scene by the time he arrived and that he had few other details about what happened.
A man who lives nearby told the newspaper that he heard about 30 gunshots over a span of several minutes.
Evidence markers sit on the scene of a fatal shooting at a car wash in Melcroft, Pa., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. (Michael Palm /Herald-Standard via AP)
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Officers work on the scene of a fatal shooting at a car wash in Melcroft, Pa., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. (Michael Palm/Herald-Standard via AP)
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In this frame from video, police work at the scene of a fatal shooting at a car wash in Melcroft, Pa., Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. (WPXI via AP)
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People comfort each other at the scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County, Pa. A jealous ex-boyfriend opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to police and the wife of one of the victims. Police said suspected shooter Tim Smith was on life support and not expected to survive after shooting himself in the head during the attack at Edâs Car Wash around 3 a.m. in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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A coroner walks under the police tape at the scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County. A jealous ex-boyfriend opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to police and the wife of one of the victims. Police said suspected shooter Tim Smith was on life support and not expected to survive after shooting himself in the head during the attack at Edâs Car Wash around 3 a.m. in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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People comfort each other as they walk towards the scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday morning, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County. A jealous ex-boyfriend opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to police and the wife of one of the victims. Police said suspected shooter Tim Smith was on life support and not expected to survive after shooting himself in the head during the attack at Edâs Car Wash around 3 a.m. in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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People hug at the scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County, Pa. A jealous ex-boyfriend opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to police and the wife of one of the victims.Police said suspected shooter Tim Smith was on life support and not expected to survive after shooting himself in the head during the attack at Edâs Car Wash around 3 a.m. in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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A little girl watches from the front of G&D Market as trucks remove three vehicles from a scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County. Of the four victims who died at the scene, two died inside a green pick-up truck and two were outside in a parking lot at the car wash, said Trooper Robert Broadwater of the state police barracks in Uniontown. The detective confirmed that the suspect was wearing body armor. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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An official walks along a line of tow trucks on Indian Creek Valley Road as they remove three vehicles from a scene where a shooter killed four people Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, outside Ed's Carwash in Saltlick Township, Fayette County, Pa. A jealous ex-boyfriend opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to police and the wife of one of the victims. Police said suspected shooter Tim Smith was on life support and not expected to survive after shooting himself in the head during the attack at Edâs Car Wash around 3 a.m. in Saltlick Township, a rural town about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. (Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
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In this Dec. 16, 2017, photo taken by Cayleigh Myers, Myers is shown with Seth Cline. Cline was among the four people killed outside a car wash in Saltlick Township, Pa, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. A shooter driven by jealousy opened fire and killed four people at a car wash early Sunday morning in Pennsylvania, while a woman hiding in the back of a pickup truck suffered only minor injuries, according to state police and family of the victims.(AP Photo/Cayleigh Myers)
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