ROSS TOWNSHIP -- The quiet community of Ross Township, Monroe County is now the center of national attention.
The lawn of the municipal building became a parking lot for news vehicles from Pennsylvania and beyond Tuesday.
Rockne Newell, 59, is accused of shooting and killing three people and injured several others at a municipal meeting Monday night.
"Our friend and neighbor is a township supervisor here and he was the own whose head was grazed by the bullet so immediately we were concerned about him that was our primary worry but then it's just unbelievable. We live here because it's so quiet and bucolic and you would just never expect anything like this here," said Anne Supic of Saylorsburg.
Investigators said Newell has had a longstanding problem with township officials over his nearby property on Flyte Road, a property strewn with trash and debris.
Most recently, that property was sold at a sheriff's sale.
Gary Hill of Saylorsburg stopped by the Ross Township municipal building Tuesday. He called Rockne Newell was an acquaintance; a man Hill said mostly kept to himself.
"I kind of figured it might be him. Intuition, I can't be sure, I had a creepy feeling about it," Hill said.
People living in the area said it will take time to heal from what has happened. Some will never recover after they said their sense of safety was shattered by one of their own.
"It's unbelievable. I have never seen this many news vans together in one place at one time, it's just unbelievable," said Frank Supic.
Click here to read all Newswatch 16 stories on the Ross Township tragedy.