JOHN CURRAN, The Associated Press
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- A six-hour standoff between a man suspected of shooting two police officers ended Monday when police entered his home and found the bodies of two men and a woman.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz would not immediately identify the three or say if one was alleged gunman Gary Heiland.
Heiland barricaded himself in his home in the Pomona Campground trailer park about 8 a.m., apparently after shooting Detective Kenneth Buck and Detective Joseph McFadden when they went to his home investigating a Sunday bar shooting.
Buck was treated and released for his wound.
McFadden, an Atlantic City Police Department officer assigned to the county prosecutor’s Major Crimes Unit, was shot in the face. He was listed in critical condition at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden.
Both were apparently shot with a shotgun, according to Blitz.
Blitz said police entered Heiland’s trailer at about 2 p.m. and found the bodies inside. He would not say whether the bodies had any visible signs of foul play, pending the results of autopsies.
Buck and McFadden had been investigating a shooting that happened at 10 p.m. Sunday at Kennedy’s Bar, about a half-mile from the trailer.
Two people were shot in the head at the bar and Heiland was sought as a suspect, according to Blitz.
Lucille Connolly, owner of Kennedy’s Bar, said she was upstairs from the bar when she heard two gunshots. On her way downstairs, she said, she heard four more.
“I ran downstairs and the barmaid was screaming, `Oh my God, they shot him, they shot him,”’ said Connolly. One victim was found underneath a pool table, she said.
The identities of those victims weren’t being released Monday. Authorities said early Tuesday that one had died, but Blitz said both were alive as of 3:30 p.m.
Weiland, who works as a pipefitter and was described by neighbors as being in his late 40s, was highly regarded but known to keep a cache of weapons in his home, including a shotgun he made himself and more than one .22 caliber weapon, according to neighbor Bob Strayhall.
“He’s a dead shot with them,” said Strayhall.
Bob Hauschild, who owns the trailer park, said Heiland was a helpful sort who had suffered health problems and was hospitalized twice in the last year with internal bleeding.
“He’s one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet,” said Hauschild. “If you were stopped in the road with a flat tire, he’d change it for you.”
William Smith, 60, who lives near Heiland, said he heard one shot at about 7:10 a.m. Monday and then heard sirens.
Bob Goff, of Hamilton Township, said his mother, Nida Goff, who also lives nearby, told him by phone that police told her to stay in her house Monday morning.
“They told her to lay down and stay away from the windows,” Bob Goff said.