A shooter opened fire into a municipal meeting in Ross Township tonight.
A shooting during a meeting at a northeastern Pennsylvania municipal building has left three people dead.
Monroe County emergency management director Guy Miller said the shooting happened tonight during Ross Township’s regular monthly meeting. He said the gunman had been captured and was in state police custody.
The Pocono Record said one of its reporters was in the township building and a gunman armed with a pistol with a scope shot through a wall into the meeting. An account from the reporter, Chris Reber, said a township official attacked the shooter and shot him with his own weapon.
Monroe County Coroner Bob Allen confirmed to the newspaper that three people died as a result of the shooting. At least three others are in critical condition following the shooting, according to the newspaper.
The Pocono Record also reported that two people were shot in the stomach, one shot in the leg and another suffered a shot to the head, though the details were not immediately confirmed.
The Pocono Record on its website published a first-person account from Reber. According to the website, Reber recalled, “All I saw was the holes go through the hall ... I saw smoke and plaster flying out, blowing out through the walls."
He continued, “I was the only person who crawled out. Everyone got behind a table. Some of the supervisors were over on the side throwing up," according to the website.
Reber said in his report, “(The shooter) went back out to his car. The parking lot was adjacent to the building. He brought another weapon back to the building ... (West End Open Space Commission Executive Director ) Bernie Kozen was there tending to the man and he (the shooter) didn’t see them. Bernie bearhugged him and took him down. He shot (the shooter) with his own gun.”
Click here for Reber's full account.
Ross Township is at Monroe County’s southern border with Northampton County, near Wind Gap and Bushkill and Plainfield townships.