Town stole my home, says man charged with killing 3

SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — A disabled junk dealer feuding with local officials over his debris-strewn property packed a rental car with guns and ammunition before opening fire at a town meeting and killing three men, authorities said Tuesday.

Rockne Newell, 59, had lost his property this year in a court fight over complaints that he lived in a storage shed, built an illegal culvert and used a bucket outside as a toilet.

At his arraignment on homicide charges Tuesday morning, a judge asked Newell if he owned any real estate.

“They stole it from me. That’s what started all this,” he replied.

Newell allegedly used a Ruger Mini-14 rifle to blast a barrage of gunfire through a wall into the meeting room Monday night in Ross Township, about 85 miles north of Philadelphia, before entering the room and shooting a supervisor and four residents, two of whom survived.

Newell then retreated to the car and picked up a revolver, authorities said. When he re- turned to the room, the 5-foot-10, 240-pound suspect was tackled by two men and shot in the leg during the scuffle, officials said.

“I wish I killed more of them!” Newell shouted when a trooper arrived on the scene, according to the trooper’s affidavit.

Two men died at the scene and the third, Ross Township zoning officer David Fleetwood, 62, died at a hospital. Officials identified the slain residents as Gerard J. Kozic, 53, and James V. LaGuardia, 64, both of Saylorsburg.

At the hospital an hour later, Newell told police he had gone to the meeting in hopes of find- ing the township officials in one place. “He intended to shoot the solicitor and supervisors and thought that he would then be killed,” police said.

About 15 to 18 people had been at the meeting, including a Pocono Record reporter covering his first Ross Township meeting.

In June, the newspaper published an article describing an 18-year fight between the township and Newell over his property, which includes an old camper filled with wooden pallets, a leaning garage close to collapse and a propane tank inside an old dog house.

Township supervisors voted in February 2012 to take legal action against Newell for alleged zoning and sewer regulations. In October, he set up a fundraising page online to try to raise $10,000 for legal fees.

“Ross township took me to court & the court ruled I have to vacate my home of 20 years,” Newell wrote on the page. He said he lived on $600 a month in Social Security benefits and had no money to clean his property.

Newell told the newspaper he was unemployed for years after an injury from a crash and had nowhere else to go.