Manhunt closes Letchworth State Park in Upstate NY

Update: Police say a 24-year-old man killed himself in Letchworth State Park after fatally shooting his 80-year-old grandfather.

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Mount Morris, N.Y. — Letchworth State Park was completely shuttered Thursday as police searched the massive park for a homicide suspect, reports said.

The investigation that led the popular park that spans two Western New York counties to close Thursday morning started with the death of an elderly man in the Rochester area.

Officers rushed to a house on Pinegrove Avenue in Irondequoit just before 6 a.m. after a woman called 911, Irondequoit Police Chief Scott Peters told News 10NBC. After evacuating the home, officers entered and found a man in his 80s who had been shot to death, police told the TV station. His name was not immediately released.

A search for the suspect eventually led to a manhunt at Letchworth, which stretches from Mount Morris to Portageville.

Shortly after 1 p.m., the manhunt was over.

“No cause for harm or alarm,” the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook, “but the Park remains closed while Law Enforcement is on scene completing their investigation.”

The New York State Police said the situation that led the park to close had “resolved”, but did not detail how, the Democrat & Chronicle reported.

By 2 p.m., the south end of Letchworth State Park had reopened from the Portageville entrance to the Castile entrance, according to the park’s website. The north end of the park remains closed.