#MontcoShooting: Why, where and what you can do to help

UPDATE: Bradley William Stone’s dead body has been found in the woods near his home, according to NBC 10. His body was found about a half mile away from his house, according to Montgomery County officials. They said Stone died from self-inflicted cutting wounds.

Stone is accused of shooting and killing his ex-wife and five of her family members on Monday morning. He allegedly murdered his former sister-in-law, Patricia Flick, Flick’s husband, Aaron, and their 14-year-old daughter, Nina, at 3:30 a.m. Monday in Souderton. Investigators say Stone then murdered his former mother-in-law, Joanne Hill, and grandmother-in-law, Patricia Hill, in Lansdale and ex-wife, Nicole Stone, in Lower Salford over the next 90 minutes. He allegedly took his and Nicole Stone’s two children from her house and left them with a neighbor at about 5 a.m. Another victim, Anthony Flick, the 17-year-old son of Patricia Flick, was taken to the hospital with head wounds. Montco D.A. Risa Vetri Ferman said he is serious condition. A friend of Anthony said he was stabbed. If you’d like to help Anthony Flick, some of his friends have set up a “Go Fund Me” account at which you can donate money. The two surviving children can be helped through the Souderton Telford Rotary Club, according to Montgomery County officials.

Here’s everything you need to know about the case.

Who is Bradley William Stone

Stone is a 35-year-old ex-Marine, according to the Montco district attorney’s office. He’s 5-10 and weighs 195 pounds and may be wearing military fatigues. He uses a cane or walker to help him get around.
Stone has twice pleaded guilty to DUI charges, in 2003 and 2013. He’s on probation for the second charge.
His Facebook page no longer appears to be active, but The Inquirer reports that he likes AC/DC and the television show “The Walking Dead.” Stone also had many tributes to fallen Marines on his Facebook page.
He was briefly president of an American Legion post in Lansdale in 2006.
Stone is an Iraq war veteran. The Los Angeles Times reported an odd bit about his service, too. According to The Times’ report, the Marine Corps says Stone was not injured in combat. But on his child support paperwork, he’s listed as being a permanently disabled veteran.
Dana DiFilippo of the Daily News got a look inside of Stone’s house late Tuesday morning. It’s pretty eerie.

View inside Brad Stone’s Pennsburg home. He’s accused of shooting his ex-wife, 6 of her relatives. He’s still on lam pic.twitter.com/r5r3nx47Hw

— Dana DiFilippo (@DanaDiFilippo) December 16, 2014

Why did he allegedly kill his ex-wife and her family?

Stone had been in a custody dispute with his wife over their two children, according to neighbors. Neighbor Corlie Stills told the The Inquirer Stone and his wife, Nicole Stone, fought often, that he would come to the Lower Salford house and try to claim the children and that police had been called.
Another neighbor, Michelle Brewster, told The Allentown Morning Call, “”They’ve been fighting for years, real bad. He’s been tormenting her. She’s gone to the police and she has told everybody, ‘He’s going to kill me.”’
A friend of Stone’s agreed that they had been fighting but expressed a different view of Stone. He told The LA Times, “She was trying to hold the kids from him, and he just snapped. But to snap by killing her family members is not the Brad that I know.… He was a nice guy.”

Where is all this happening?

The following locations are where the majority of police activity has occurred:

What have the police done so far?

Police first received notice of the incidents Monday morning at 4:25, according to the Pottstown Mercury. They were responding to a hang-up 911 call from the Lansdale residence of Stone’s former mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law. Police found the dead bodies and then went to Nicole Stone’s house in Lower Salford and found her dead. Souderton police then went to the residence of Nicole Stone’s sister, Patricia Flick, at around 8 a.m. They saw movement and called for a siege of the house. Streets were closed, and a swat team rolled in. They set off a diversionary blast around noon, entered the house and discovered the three dead bodies and Anthony Flick, who was alive but wounded.
At the same time and throughout the afternoon, also according to the Mercury, swat teams were in Pennsburg outside of Stone’s rowhouse. They repeatedly called for him to come out through a megaphone and set off flash-bang grenades. They finally used a battering ram to knock down his door, and Stone wasn’t inside. By 6 p.m. Montco D.A. Risa Vetri Ferman told reporters they didn’t know Stone’s whereabouts.
The authorities’ next search centered on Doylestown, which is in Bucks County. The police received a report around 7 p.m. that a man matching Stone’s description tried to carjack someone with a knife and then fled into the woods after the man in the car fired at him with a gun.

Doylestown PD statement on #montcoshooting suspect via @BucksDa pic.twitter.com/u35kkCs7rT

— Tom Sofield (@BuxMontNews) December 16, 2014

For the next several hours, K9 units from area police departments combed the area. Here’s what the scene looked like in Doylestown Monday night.

At a press conference Tuesday around noon, Montco D.A. Ferman said they believed the lead from Doylestown was false. Ferman said they still don’t know Stone’s whereabouts and said it’s possible he has fled from the area. She said they had many SWAT, FBI and ATF personnel searching for Stone.
It was just after 2 p.m. today that NBC Philadelphia reported Stone to be dead. His body was found 200 yards away from his house, according to Action News 6.

Photo by Joshua Scott Albert