"You killed innocent people," a man can be heard on an audio recording telling Rockne Newell after he allegedly opened fire on a municipal meeting. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Fifteen minutes into an Aug. 5 Ross Township municipal meeting, as council waded through a routine agenda, there was a deafening volley of gunshots.
The horrifying recording of what took place in the township municipal building that summer night was played for a packed courtroom during today's preliminary hearing for 59-year-old Rockne Newell. The township man is accused of opening fire on township officials and the public in retaliation for a property dispute.
Screams were notably absent for seconds after the gunfire began. But confused shouts and moaning from the injured soon followed. Another several gunshots gave way to relative quiet -- heavy breathing and murmurs of “Oh my God.”
People inside the meeting were tending to some of the injured, trying to account for everyone who dove behind overturned chairs and tables, witnesses testified. The strange calm was broken by the booming voice of a man:
“He’s coming back! He’s coming back! He’s coming back!”
There were more gunshots and the sound of a struggle, furious demands of “Put it down! Stay down!”
A voice identified by authorities as that of Newell's could be heard shouting in his own defense.
“You stole my (expletive) home!” the voice yells.
“I don’t care,” a man responds. “You killed innocent people. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Newell is accused of killing township zoning officer David Fleetwood and Saylorsburg residents Gerald Kozic and James Laguardia. District Judge Kristina Anzini today sent those murder charges, along with six charges of attempted murder and related offenses, to Monroe County Court, where Newell faces trial unless he pleads guilty or another disposition occurs.
Authorities said they’re seeking the death penalty.
Once Newell was subdued, the chilling audiotape records the heartbreaking wait for help to arrive.
“I don’t know what to do,” someone says.
“I don’t either,” another person answers.
“Put pressure on the wound, that’s all you can do,” someone offers.
Linda Kozic can be heard pleading with her husband, Gerald, who suffered a fatal wound to his abdomen when he stepped between his wife and the gunman.
“Don’t you go anywhere,” she says. “Come on, Jerry. Stay with me. Don’t you dare go anywhere.”
A man can be heard speaking with 911 dispatchers on his phone.
“We’re at the Ross Township Municipal Building,” he says. “We need ambulances. Many of them, we need many of them. Four, five, a half dozen — I don’t know. We’re in the meeting room. One … one is not talking at all. Please. Please hurry.”
'They stole my property'
Members of Stroud Area Regional Police Department's SRT team patrol in front of the Monroe County Courthouse today in Stroudsburg, Pa., during Rockne Newell's preliminary hearing. The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office called seven witnesses at today's hearing in the county courthouse in Stroudsburg, seeking to prove that there was enough evidence to place Newell at the scene. John Dunn, township solicitor and the man Newell told a paramedic he had planned to kill all along, listened to the recording with his hand at his mouth, his eyes downcast.
Newell, seated with his attorneys in a dark blue prison jumpsuit, closed his eyes for much of the hearing, appearing to doze off at times. His attorney Michael Weinstein denied his client was sleeping.
Dunn and others described how they first thought the gunshots tearing into the building were fireworks until they saw the drywall splintering from the powerful .223-caliber rifle rounds.
Dawn Gorham, executive director of the Pocono Heritage Land Trust, was in the parking lot before the shooting began, having just finished a short appearance before the township council. She said Newell asked her and a colleague if the meeting was still in session and she told him it was.
“As he was walking away, he said, ‘They stole my property.’ We thought that was odd,” Gorham said.
Once inside her vehicle, Gorham testified, she saw Newell walking back to the building, having returned for a moment to his car. He was carrying a long gun, she said. Gorham watched in disbelief, she said, as he went into the building.
“At that point, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I didn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said.
Gorham said she saw a man — Fleetwood — and an unidentified woman run to the front door. When Fleetwood saw Newell, Gorham said, he pulled the woman behind him. Newell then allegedly shot Fleetwood in the stomach.
Gorham noticed her colleague had taken that moment to hurry out of the parking lot, she testified. She said she followed suit, speeding onto the road. Shaken, she dialed 911.
Handgun in car
Gorham’s 911 call was played in court, followed by a call from Fleetwood, who told dispatchers he’d been hit.
“I can’t move,” Fleetwood said, his voice sluggish.
“Who was doing the shooting?” a dispatcher asked him during the call.
“Rockne Newell, I think,” Fleetwood responds. “Please hurry. I’m in the front door. I was running out and I got shot.”
Before Newell had gone back to his vehicle to retrieve a .44-caliber handgun, he shot Laguardia, who was fleeing out a side entrance, according to testimony from Pennsylvania State Trooper John Corrigan. Laguardia toppled over an embankment and would be pronounced dead at the scene, witnesses testified. Paramedic Leonard Tever testified that he found Laguardia under a blanket, as if someone thought he might be cold.
Newell came back to the building, armed with the handgun to finish what he started, Tever testified. He said the 59-year-old would tell him on the way to the hospital that he’d intended to kill Dunn, the solicitor.
“He said he was very upset that he didn’t injure the lawyer,” Tever said.
“Did he say injure?” asked First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso.
“No, he said he wanted to kill him,” Tever said. “He said it was their fault he was homeless. He said he had the hammer back and he was getting ready to kill the lawyer.”
'I had to take action'
Bernard Kozen, a parks director for Ross and Chestnuthill townships, had sat at the meeting beside Fleetwood, his longtime friend and colleague. Everyone scattered in the chaos after the gunshots started, Kozen testified.
During the lull in the violence, Kozen peeked down the hallway and saw Newell for the first time since the rampage began, he said. He also saw his friend Fleetwood lying near the front door on his back, suffering from what looked like a very serious abdominal injury, he said.
“I tried to reassure him that everything was going to be OK,” Kozen said, his voice cracking. “I put some pressure on the wound.”
Kozen said he spotted Newell, returning with a handgun at his side. He said he yelled to warn the others before ducking behind the wall near Fleetwood’s office. Newell passed by, Kozen said, and fired a few shots into the municipal meeting room.
“For some reason, I just felt that I had to take action,” Kozen said, clearly emotional.
Kozen worked to disarm Newell while Mark Kresh, another resident, jumped in to help. During the scuffle, Newell was shot in the leg, Kozen said. Someone lent him a black shirt to tie the shooter’s hands behind his back, Kozen said. He and Kresh held Newell in place until police arrived, according to testimony.
Before dismissing Kozen from the stand, Mancuso offered him a sincere thank you.
“I really appreciate what you did that day,” the prosecutor said. “You probably saved several lives.”