Crime & Safety

Gilbertsville Shooting Victims Identified

A gunman remains at large after five people were shot Saturday night.

First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele and Douglass Township Police Chief Barry L. Templin, Jr. identified the victims in last night’s shooting as Paul Shay, Monica Shay, Joseph Shay, Kathryn Erdmann and her son Gregory.

Joseph Shay, 43 of Yarmouth, Mass. and New York, N.Y.; and Gregory, 5, were shot in the head and killed. 

Kathryn Erdmann, 37 of Fall River, Mass. was also shot in the head and is in critical condition. 

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The owners of the house on Renninger Road – Paul Shay, 64, and Monica Shay, 58, of New York, N.Y. – are both hospitalized in critical condition. None of the surviving victims could speak to investigators.

Autopsies on the two murder victims are being conducted by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

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The Douglass Township Police Department and Montgomery County Detective Bureau initiated a joint murder investigation into the killings, which happened at 50 Renninger Road in Bechtelsville, Montgomery County on Saturday night.

Douglass Township Police were dispatched for a reported shooting at a house on Renninger Rd. Upon arrival, police found five people had suffered gun shot wounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call Douglass Township Police at 610-367-0466 or Montgomery County Detectives at 610-278-3368.


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