Crime & Safety
3 Shot Dead at Municipal Building Near Saylorsburg
Three people died Monday when a gunman opened fire at a municipal meeting in Ross Township near Saylorsburg in the southern Poconos.
A disgruntled Ross Township resident is the suspect in a mass shooting that left three people dead at a meeting at the township's municipal building near Saylorsburg on Monday night, according to multiple reports.
The shooting happened about 12 miles north of Nazareth.
Self-described "junk collector" Rockne Newell, 59, has been fighting with township officials for years over his property, where human feces were found in buckets in 2009, according to the Pocono Record.
The gunman began shooting into the meeting room at 7:15 p.m. while 18 people were inside, WFMZ reports.
Pocono Record Reporter Chris Reber described hearing 10 shots and seeing plaster fly off the walls.
Some people hid behind a table. Reber was able to crawl out a side door and hid behind an SUV, where he watched as Newell went out to a car to get a second gun.
A township official and a resident tackled Newell when he came back into the building.
Two people died at the scene; a third died after being flown to St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill, according to the Express Times.
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