3 dead in shooting at Jersey Shore

LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - A South Jersey man shot his brother dead, killed a woman who had rushed to help the dying man, and then turned his assault rifle on himself, authorities said.

The incident unfolded this morning in a middle-class Shore community outside Tuckerton in Ocean County.

Police said Craig Mueller, 45, lined up his 52-year-old brother, Bryan, in the sights of his AR-15 from a second-story window on Westchester Drive. From his sniper's perch, just before 10 a.m., Craig Mueller pulled the trigger.

The crack of the rifle drew a neighbor's attention. Cara Ellis, 21, who lived two doors down, ran to help Bryan Mueller who lay dying on the grass. Craig Mueller fired again. This time the bullets tore into Ellis, a young wife and mother, killing her.

Neighbors reported hearing nearly two dozen shots. Both of the victims were each hit multiple times.

For several hours, police combed the neighborhood searching for the gunman. Schools were locked down. Dozens of uniformed officers, Swat teams and state police moved into the area near the intersection of Radio Road and Westchester Drive.

Authorities were afraid that the gunman had run off into the nearby woods. They swarmed the area, cordoned off dozens of acres, setting up a large perimeter for at least two miles around the development.

Four-and-a-half hours later, police found Craig Mueller with the weapon in his hand. He was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the Westchester Drive home he had shared with his brother.

"The public can feel secure that they are in no danger," said Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford at an afternoon news conference. She said it was unclear whether Ellis, the Good Samaritan, knew the Mueller brothers.

"Cara was unfortunately caught . . . when she was trying to assist Bryan," Ford said. She said the motive for the shootings remains a mystery.

This part of southern Ocean County, about 35 miles north of Atlantic City, is a relatively quiet area, with many retirees and others employed as fishermen or other maritime trades.

"This is not what you expect to happen here," said Sheila Milbourne, a Tall Timbers resident who said she heard about 20 to 30 shots and then looked out the window to see a body lying on the sidewalk near her apartment. "It just means that this community is no different than any other community and that violence like this can happen anywhere."

Chet Thornberry, who lives in the complex with his mother, Sophie, 78, said he heard a "couple dozen" gunshots this morning but didn't think much of it. Thornberry walked out of his development to a main entrance on Center Street when a police officer ordered him back into his house.

Marni Markoski, 44, who lives on Radio Road, across the street from the development, said she heard "at least 20 to 30" gunshots around 9:57 a.m.

"In the winter sometimes you hear rifle shots, some people hunting," Markoski said. "But it never sounds like what I heard this morning. That's why it didn't occur to me that it was a gun."

She said she thought it was nail gun and that the gunshots continued sporadically.

Markoski said Pinelands High School, where her son is a senior, was locked down.

Thornberry said many residents were frightened and were considering fleeing.

Thornberry said the weather may have helped to keep the shooting toll low. "The rain has been a blessing in disguise."

Little Egg Harbor Township School District, a K-6 district of two schools, went into a lockdown mode around 10:30 a.m., said Superintendent Frank Kasyan.

The district's schools are about five miles or so from the shooting scene, officials said. School officials scrutinized anyone trying to enter the facilities.

Families from about 10 units of the townhouse complex have been displaced by the police investigation, Ford said. The Red Cross has offered to house the families during the duration.

Ford also said investigators were uncertain whether the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle similar to the M16 used by the U.S. military, was legally registered to one of the Mueller brothers.

The slayings came a day before the Little Egg Harbor police department is to lay off 11 officers.

The multiple shooting is the second in South Jersey in five days. Thursday night, a Pennsauken man shot his three teenage sons, killing two, and then set his house on fire before he was killed in a confrontation with police.