On a Wednesday afternoon, just before Halloween in 1985, the life of a young boy named Recife A. Booty Cosmen was tragically cut short. The two-year-old was with his parents at the Springfield Mall in Pennsylvania on October 30th, waiting to get a meal at a restaurant, when a woman dressed in military-style clothing began shooting in the parking lot. The first shots from the. 22-caliber rifle missed their intended targets, but then a bullet struck Recife, killing him. The shooter, 25-year-old Sylvia Seegrist, then entered the mall and continued her rampage.
Inside the shopping center, chaos erupted as Seegrist fired indiscriminately, killing two more people: 64-year-old Augusto Ferrara and 67-year-old Dr. Ernest Earl Trout. Seven other shoppers were wounded during the terrifying ordeal. Many at first believed the sounds of gunfire to be a Halloween prank. The deadly event came to an end when a heroic civilian, John W. Laufer III, confronted and disarmed Seegrist.
Sylvia Seegrist was immediately taken into custody. It was later revealed that she had a history of mental illness, including a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, and had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. Despite her mental health history, she had illegally purchased the rifle used in the shooting by lying on the application form. Following her arrest, Seegrist was evaluated and found competent to stand trial.
In June of 1986, a jury found Sylvia Seegrist guilty of three counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, but also determined that she was mentally ill at the time of the crime. She was subsequently sentenced to three consecutive life sentences, ensuring she would remain incarcerated for the rest of her life. She was transferred to the State Correctional Institution at Muncy to serve her sentence.
