Gunman kills 3 at municipal meeting
A man feuding with township officials in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains over living conditions at his ramshackle, trash-filled property killed three people at a municipal meeting — including at least one town official — in a rampage that blew holes through the walls and sent people crawling for cover, authorities said.
The gunman, identified as 59-year-old Rockne Newell, randomly fired shots Monday night as he barged into the meeting, authorities said. He left long enough to get another weapon from his car and continued firing upon returning until he was tackled by at least one person and shot with his own gun, police and witnesses said.
“I heard more than 10 shots,” Pocono Record reporter Chris Reber said in a first-person account. “It was automatic, like a string of firecrackers.”
The shooting, which injured at least two other people, happened during Ross Township's monthly meeting, Monroe County emergency management director Guy Miller said. State police said 15 to 18 people were at the building, a short drive from Newell's property, when the gunfire erupted.
Two people died at the scene, and a third person died after being flown to a hospital. Police confirmed that at least one of the dead was a township official but gave no details. A fourth person was undergoing surgery late Monday for undisclosed injuries.
State police said Newell had a long-running dispute with township officials over the dilapidated property. He said he lived on Social Security and could not afford to clean it.
Reber said he was at the township building Monday night when a man armed with a long gun with a scope shot through a wall into the meeting.A local official grabbed the shooter and subdued him, Reber said.“(West End Open Space Commission executive director) Bernie Kozen bear-hugged the gunman and took him down,” Reber said. “He shot the shooter with his own gun.”State police said they believed two people may have subdued the gunman, who was shot in one of his legs. They did not say who the second person was.Newell's property includes an old camper in the front yard filled with wooden pallets, pieces of what appear to be old railroad ties and trash. A garage leans and appears close to collapse.Supervisors voted in February 2012 to take legal action against Newell for violating zoning and sewer regulations, according to meeting minutes.
