PHILADELPHIA (Tribune News Service) — An Iraq war veteran shot and killed his ex-wife and five of her relatives early Monday, terrorizing four communities in Montgomery County, Pa., and sparking a manhunt that continued deep into the night, officials said.
The suspect, Bradley W. Stone, 35, of Pennsburg, Pa., had a “familial relationship” with all the victims, officials said. Besides his ex-wife, he allegedly killed her mother, grandmother, sister, brother-in-law and niece.
The spree began before hours before daybreak and sent SWAT teams scrambling from town to town and schools into secure mode. Officers discovered bodies in homes in Souderton, Lansdale and Harleysville. A 17-year-old boy, Stone’s former nephew, was also shot and wounded.
Prosecutors didn’t identify him as the suspect until mid-afternoon and then released only sparse detail, saying he was thought to be armed, had a red or auburn beard and could be wearing fatigues and using a cane or a walker. Hours later, District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman’s office said Stone may have shaved his head and might not use a walker.
At a brief news conference outside the Lower Salford police building, Ferman did not discuss a motive and declined to take questions.
“We do not know where he is,” she said.
Late Monday night, investigators were pursuing a complaint that Stone may have been spotted in Doylestown, according to a law enforcement source. Stone was clearly “on the run,” the source said.
At the same time, Pennsburg had activated a “Shelter-In-Place” recommendation for the entire borough. “We ask that ALL residents please remain in their homes with doors locked and away from any windows,” the alert said. “Please do not answer your door for anyone other than law enforcement officers.”
County court records show Stone had been in divorce proceedings with his 33-year-old wife, Nicole A. Stone, since early 2009. In early December, he filed an emergency motion for custody of their two daughters, thought to be teens.
Lisa Andrey, a longtime neighbor to Nicole Stone’s mother, said the couple had “a very volatile relationship” that had deteriorated after the Marine returned from serving in Iraq.
When the couple first got together “he was a great guy and an excellent father,” Andrey said. “And then he went away to Iraq and came back and was a completely different man.”
In a statement, the Marine Corps confirmed that Stone served between 2002 and 2008. His four service medals included the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal.
Among the Facebook groups that he had appeared to list among his favorites were pages for local and national veterans groups and the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Court records also show Stone had three DUI arrests and that he was still on probation for one conviction.
Ferman said the first shootings occurred about 3:30 a.m. in Souderton, where Patricia Flick, the suspect’s ex sister-in-law, her husband, and her 14-year-old daughter, were killed. Flick’s 17-year-old son was shot and was being treated at a Philadelphia hospital, the prosecutor said.
About an hour later, Mary and Henry Virgilio were awakened by “police lights shining in the bedroom” of their home along in Lansdale. Across the street, they saw officers in the house where Nicole Stone’s mother and grandmother lived.
Then police were summoned to Main Street in Harleysville, where Nicole Stone was found dead.
At each location, police scrambled to secure the scene.
Judy Alderfer, a restaurant manager who lives in the Souderton neighborhood, said that police there had ordered residents to leave their houses, and they took shelter in a nearby McDonald’s.
Audrey Gallina said that when she came out of her house, police warned her: “There’s a man with a gun, he’s very dangerous, go inside.”
The incidents touched off a “shelter in place” order at all schools in the Souderton Area School District. Students at the neighboring Upper Perkiomen School District were forced to remain in classes after the usual dismissal time.
By early evening Monday, police tactical teams surrounded a twin home in Pennsburg, where the front door evidently had been smashed. But a raid there yielded nothing.
“Nothing like this ever happens here,” said resident Luke Shimpeno, 25. He described his street as a “nice neighborhood, where kids are safe, and can ride their bikes around.”
Back in Lansdale, Lisa Andrey and others were still coping with the news. Andrey said he was heartbroken for the daughters.
“Nicole gave her entire life to her baby girls,” she said, “and he took everything away from those babies — everyone that they knew, and now they have no one.”
Inquirer staff writers Anthony R. Wood, Craig McCoy, Kathy Boccella and Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.
©2014 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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