A few years ago, Gabriella Morgan was living with her family in Mount Joy Borough when she met Ricky Shannon playing sports and the video game Fortnite online.

About a year ago, she decided to move in with Shannon to the Altoona home she shared with his mother.

That’s the account provided by Mitchell Eshleman, 55, of Ephrata, who identified himself Tuesday as Morgan’s uncle. He is engaged to Morgan’s mother’s sister.

Shannon, 22, and Morgan, 19, are now dead after Shannon went on a violent rampage last Friday (November 8) that ended in a police shootout on a road north of Harrisburg early that morning.

Although Eshleman hadn’t met Shannon in real life before Morgan moved to Altoona, they had met through an online gaming community that he and “Gabby” were a part of. Eshleman said Shannon seemed like a smart kid.

“The kid I met playing video games with is a totally different person,” Eshleman said.

Totally different from the man Shannon would become — a man who police say drove 150 miles early that Friday morning after receiving a protection-from-abuse order Morgan had taken out against him, then causing Morgan’s death and her mother’s and hurting. her stepfather and her sister before he was killed at the hands of the police.

Efforts to contact Shannon’s family were unsuccessful.

Even though Shannon didn’t raise any immediate red flags, Eshleman said he and Morgan’s mother and other family members urged Morgan to be cautious in her decision to move across the state.

Almost immediately after moving in with Shannon, Eshleman said, Shannon began isolating Morgan, sometimes locking her in their bedroom, preventing her from showering and not allowing her to call her mother, Kimberly Day or others family members.

Eshleman said Morgan was allowed to call him, and they last spoke in April or May.

Eshleman said she also spoke to Shannon on the phone after Morgan told her how Shannon had treated her.

“I said, you better treat my niece better or I’m going to come out there and you and I are going to have a talk,” Eshleman said.

DW Day, 44, of Parker, Colo., another uncle and the brother of Morgan’s mother, said Morgan would call him and tell him about Shannon’s abuse. He said he encouraged her to leave him, as did her mother and stepfather.

“We’ve all done it, but you can’t make a decision for an 18, 19-year-old,” he said.

In some of Morgan’s calls, Day said, she heard Shannon in the background saying she was going to change. Day also said Morgan has some mental health issues, though he didn’t know her diagnosis, for which she needed to take medication, and that Shannon sometimes wouldn’t let her take the medication.

Christina Akers, a family friend who is acting as a spokesperson, agreed that the relationship was toxic. She is organizing a GoFundMe fundraiser for the shooting survivors, Morgan’s stepfather and sister.

dragging

Akers said Shannon shot Morgan multiple times in the apartment and unwittingly went with Shannon, who led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a shootout after police used a tactical maneuver to stop Shannon’s truck.

According to police, Shannon immediately began shooting at the troopers, narrowly missing them. It wasn’t until they returned fire and went to try to help him that they realized Morgan was also in the truck.

The drive happened shortly before 5 a.m. and Shannon’s truck had tinted windows.

It is unclear whether Morgan died from Shannon’s gunshots or from the troopers. Shannon was killed in the shootout.

Even though trooper gunfire played a role in Morgan’s death, Akers said her family has “absolutely no animosity toward law enforcement. They didn’t kill Gabby. The police tried to do everything they could to save her. They went to heroic lengths. (Shannon) killed Gabby.”

About 45 minutes before the fatal attack, Shannon had gone to the Sassafras Terrace Apartments on East Main Street in Mount Joy and started shooting. He killed Morgan’s mother, Kimberly Day, 41, and wounded her stepfather, Brian Miller, and her sister, Jennifer Day.

Akers said Shannon shot Miller, a Marine veteran, in the hand, neck and chest, rendering him unable to protect his family.

Akers said Miller was released from the hospital Tuesday and Jennifer Day was released Friday.

Morgan’s account

According to the account Morgan wrote in her emergency protective order petition — signed Thursday by Columbia Borough District Judge Miles Bixler — Morgan’s mother and an uncle drove to Altoona on Nov. 4 and brought her back to Mount Joy.

Morgan wrote that earlier that day, Shannon got upset for no reason about an hour after she woke up and locked her in a room for hours.

After letting him go, she made plans to leave. While packing, she wrote that Shannon told her she hoped she would be raped.

Her uncle, DW Day, said Morgan called to say he left Shannon so he could be proud of her.

Once she got to Mount Joy, she wrote, she went to the district police and told them that Shannon had hacked her social media and email accounts. The date she gave the information to police is unclear from her petition, but she wrote that Shannon called and texted her repeatedly during the trip from Altoona.

“I’m afraid he’s going to find me and hurt me because in his words he’d ‘joke’ about cutting off body parts or hurt me if I ever left… I’m afraid he’ll call again and harass me , but I also fear for my life,” she wrote.