A Pennsburg man who authorities say went on a killing spree early Monday morning, slaying his ex-wife and five of her family members in three Montgomery County communities, remained at large as of press time Tuesday after SWAT teams surrounded two residences where he was thought to be holed up and a police manhunt intensified as the day progressed.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Bradley William Stone, 35, is suspected of shooting to death his former wife, 33-year-old Nicole Stone, inside her Lower Salford home; the woman’s mother, Joanne Hill, and grandmother, Patricia Hill, inside a Lansdale residence; and his ex-wife’s sister, her husband and their 14-year-old daughter at their Souderton residence.
The sister’s 17-year-old son, Anthony Flick, suffered a head wound and was flown by helicopter to a Philadelphia hospital, according to Ferman. His condition was not known Monday night.
Stone, who is described as 5’10” and 195 pounds, with closely cropped hair, is considered armed and dangerous, and his whereabouts were unknown as of Monday night, according to Ferman.
Stone may be wearing sand- or green-colored military fatigues and has been known to use a cane or walker to help get around. There were reports of a carjacking in Doylestown, Bucks County, Monday evening, with the suspect possibly fitting Stone’s description.
Early indications were that Stone, who served in the U.S. Marines, began his rampage in Souderton around 3:30 a.m., killing Nicole Stone’s sister, Patricia Flick, her husband, Aaron, and their 14-year-old daughter, Nina, a ninth-grader at Souderton Area High School.
During the next approximately 90 minutes, investigators said, Stone killed his former mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law inside a Lansdale residence, and murdered his ex-wife inside her Lower Salford home, then took his two daughters from his ex-wife’s house and went to Pennsburg, where he dropped the two youngsters off at a neighbor’s house around 5 a.m. – the last time Stone was seen.
At 4:25 a.m., according to Ferman, Lansdale police responded to the 100 block of West Fifth Street after a 911 hang-up call and found the bodies of Stone’s mother and grandmother inside the residence. Half-an-hour later, Lower Salford police went to the Pheasant Run apartments on the 100 block of Main Street and found Nicole Stone dead.
Shortly before 8 a.m., Souderton police – with knowledge of the earlier shootings – went to the 100 block of Penn Avenue for a well-being check on Stone’s sister and her family and saw movement inside the residence that led them to believe that Bradley Stone could be inside, according to Towamencin Police Chief Tim Dickinson, who was at the scene assisting local and county authorities.
Nearby streets were blocked off, SWAT units responded, and around noon, a blast that Dickinson characterized as a “diversionary device” was heard in the vicinity of the Penn Avenue home as SWAT officers went in. Patricia, Aaron and Nina Flick were found deceased, and Anthony Flick was discovered wounded and flown via medical helicopter to an unspecified Philadelphia hospital.
Dickinson said that once the house was cleared, Stone was not found at that location.
As the Souderton situation was unfolding, SWAT teams in Pennsburg – backed by police from multiple jurisdictions – took up positions outside a rowhouse on Fourth Street where Stone had been living.
Throughout the afternoon, SWAT personnel could repeatedly be heard saying, “Bradley, this is the police department, come out with your hands up” over a loudspeaker as dozens of onlookers joined media members a block away on Pottstown Avenue to watch the unfolding events.
More than once, the boom of flash-bang grenades echoed on the deserted streets – police closed off roads in a several-block radius of Stone’s house and shouted at bystanders several times to move back from the scene – and a SWAT vehicle used a battering ram to smash through Stone’s front door while SWAT members were spotted moving around and into the house.
However, as daylight seeped from the sky, word still had not come that Stone had been located.
Finally, around 6 p.m. Monday, Ferman told a group of reporters gathered at Lower Salford police headquarters that “as we stand here right now, we do not know where he is.”
Ferman, who did not speculate on a motive for the rampage, said that authorities had recovered Stone’s vehicle and his cell phone but did not have information about how he was traveling.
Authorities urged anyone with information about Stone’s location to call 911 immediately and asked people not to approach Stone if spotted.
The Upper Perkiomen School District posted a notice on its website late Monday stating that classes were canceled for today because of the continued hunt for Stone.
Staff writers Dan Clark and Bob Keeler contributed to this article.
