The Many Faces of Bradley Stone
Bradley Stone is dead, his terrible Montgomery County killing spree of his ex-wife, Nicole, and five members of her family is over. But efforts to figure out who he was and why he did what he did have just begun. So has the mourning in a community shattered by events.
Friends and neighbors came together for a vigil in Souderton Tuesday night to remember the victims and pray for the sole survivor, 17 year-old Anthony Flick.
People who both knew and did not know the victims attended the vigil at Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church. “We do feel for the family, the children and everything,” Hazel Melhuish of Souderton told 69 News. “Can’t imagine having a funeral for all these people in one family.”
Anthony also attends the North Montco Technical Career Center. The district attorney said he has significant cutting injuries to his hands and head and lost three fingers. She said it appears they are defensive wounds and he was fighting off his attacker. “He fought and survived and that’s what we’ve got to do in this world sometimes,” said John Meluish of Souderton.
CBS Philly reports that Stone, a Marine, suffered combat injuries in Iraq:
According to court documents, as of 2013 Stone was continuing treatment at the VAMC for PTSD and related conditions.
In January, Stone was unable to pay court fines and a physician deemed him unemployable and totally disabled as a result of PTSD.
Court records show Stone was fighting for custody of his five and eight year-old daughters during the week leading up to the killing spree that left Stone’s ex-wife, Nicole dead.
On the same day that Stone is believed to have gone on the shooting rampage that killed Nicole and five members of her family, Stone posted a photo with his daughters on Facebook saying, “A man who doesn’t fight for his kids is a sorrowful man.”
Neighbors said Nicole Stone would sometimes ask her apartment complex’s maintenance staff to go in and check her place first because she was afraid he might be lying in wait.
“She would tell anybody who would listen that he was going to kill her and that she was really afraid for her life,” said Evan Weron, a neighbor in Harleysville.
The Daily News says Stone was seen by some as a “sweetheart,” and suspiciously by others.
A Marine veteran who was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment – the same unit as Stone – recalled Stone in less-than-flattering terms.
“He wasn’t what you would call a good Marine,” said the vet, who recently came home from deployment in Afghanistan, and didn’t want his name used because he didn’t have permission from the military to talk about Stone.
The veteran said Stone’s tour in Iraq didn’t last long because he convinced superiors that he had asthma and needed to go home.
“Everyone keeps reporting that he had PTSD, but that really puts a bad taste in the mouths of former Marines who were overseas and actually served their time,” he said.
The two daughters of Bradley and Nicole Stone are in protective custody.
