Victim’s mother seeking answers
Says her son was best friends with neighbor, who’s charged in slaying after an argument
A day after a shooting that left one man dead in the driveway of a Bethlehem Township home, the slain man’s mother is asking the same question as the investigators who charged a neighbor with firing the fatal shot. Why?
Authorities charged Joshua Leone, 35, with homicide, alleging he shot Kenneth Pickell, 31, in the back Tuesday afternoon following an argument at the end of Leone’s driveway in a normally quiet neighborhood of multifamily homes.
Northampton County District Attorney Terry Houck said Wednesday that investigators are still looking into the specifics of the argument, and why it led to a deadly outcome.
Those questions have left Pickell’s mother, Leanne Pickell, reeling.
Her son was staying in her home on Clifton Avenue and had quickly made friends with Leone, a neighbor.
“He told me once, ‘Mom, I love that guy like a brother.’ Those two were the best of friends,” Pickell said. “I’ll never understand [why Pickell was shot]. And I hope I never do.”
Pickell said her son, a Phillipsburg High School alum who played varsity football for the ‘Liners, left behind a 5-year-old son whom he adored.
“He was a loving son and a loving father,” Pickell said, her voice breaking with emotion.
When Bethlehem Township police were called to the neighborhood Tuesday, they found a woman kneeling next to Pickell, who was lying in a pool of blood in Leone’s driveway, court papers say. The woman, identi
fied in court papers as “MK,” told police that her husband had been shot by “Josh,” the neighbor.
Leone came out of his home with his hands in the air and was arrested without incident, police said. He’s being held without bail in Northampton County Jail. According to court records: Pickell’s wife told police she and her husband went outside to walk the dog and noticed Leone breaking up furniture in front of his house. She was tending to the dog when she noticed Pickell and Leone arguing in the driveway.
She saw things getting “out of hand” and walked over to plead with her husband to walk away. Leone went to his garage, and she told police she saw him holding a shotgun and revolver and inviting Pickell to come inside.
Pickell turned away from Leone, and that’s when he opened fire, hitting Pickell in the upper back. He died at the scene a short time later.
Houck said Pickell’s death has been ruled a homicide. An autopsy determined he died from a single gunshot wound to his back.