Police were hunting for a gunman yesterday suspected of killing six people on Monday and seriously wounding another in a series of shootings near the northeastern US city of Philadelphia.
All seven of the people shot have a “familial relationship” to the suspect, identified as 35-year-old Bradley William Stone, prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, said.
Police said Stone — a former US marine who uses a cane or a walker and was possibly wearing military fatigues — should be considered “armed and dangerous” and told people to stay in their homes.
A photograph of Stone that shows him with closely cropped red hair, beard and mustache was released to the public.
No possible motive was given for the shootings.
One of the dead is believed to be Stone’s ex-wife, identified by local media as Nicole Hill.
Hill was believed to have been shot dead in her apartment in Lower Salford in the middle of the night in front of her two young daughters. The couple were apparently locked in a custody battle.
Hill’s grandmother is believed to be one of two people found killed in a home in Lansdale.
ABC television affiliate WPVI said the suspect was believed to be a military veteran. Police stormed a home in Souderton, apparently belonging to Hill’s sister.
Other bodies were found there, along with a teenager who was wounded and taken to hospital in a helicopter, the local NBC affiliate NBC 10 reported.
Police were searching in a fourth location, the town of Pennsburg, where Stone is a resident, prosecutors said. Residents were advised not to leave their homes.
Several school districts ordered students and teachers to shelter in place on Monday.
Additional reporting by AP
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