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Man killed, stepdaughter critical in suburban feud

Ridley Township police knew the Folsom neighborhood well.

Ridley Township police knew the Folsom neighborhood well.

For months, officers fielded complaints from James Dellavecchia, a retiree upset about loud music and construction noise that drifted across property lines to his Ninth Avenue home.

Dellavecchia, 72, had confronted his neighbor, 42-year-old Scott Robins, but didn't get the results he wanted.

So around 6 a.m. Monday, police said, Dellavecchia grabbed a .40-caliber semiautomatic Ruger, marched to his neighbor's house along Sylvania Avenue and waited. As Robins, a mechanic, headed from his door to a van in the driveway, Dellavecchia emerged and started firing.

He shot Robins four times in the arms and torso, police said. When Robins' 23-year-old stepdaughter came out of the house, Dellavecchia allegedly shot her, too.

He also took aim but missed Robins' coworker, who had been waiting in the van before running down the street, police said.

Robins, 42, died about two hours later at Crozier Medical Center. His stepdaughter, Kristen Snow, was in critical condition after being shot in the stomach.

Ridley Township Police Lieut. Scott Willoughby said officers found Dellavecchia showering at his home and arrested him. They seized his clothes, the alleged murder weapon and two boxes of ammunition.

The weapon was legal, but Dellavecchia didn't have a permit to carry a concealed weapon, police said.

Willoughby said officers had been aware of the dispute but said Robins' backyard construction projects didn't violate any codes or statutes. He also said officers never thought the spat would turn violent.

"It just exploded this morning," he told reporters gathered outside the police station.

The murder was the first this year in Ridley Township, a middle-class suburb that borders I-95. It was also a rarity in the neighborhood, said John Hoffman, who knows both men and lives between them, on the corner of Sylvania and Ninth.

"Nothing like this has ever happened here," said Hoffman, glancing at the bloodstains on Robins' driveway and yellow police tape that ringed the property, as children rode by on their bikes and scooters.

Both Dellavecchia and Robins had deep roots in the neighborhood. Dellavecchia lived with his wife in their home since 1984, according to public records. Robins grew up in his Sylvania Avenue home and moved back in recent years with his wife and her daughter when his parents passed away, police said.

Willoughby didn't identify Robins' wife, but said she had been away when the shooting occurred and was headed to be with Snow at Crozier-Chester Medical Center.

Dellavecchia was there, too. After officers jailed him at the township police building, he placed his hands in his pockets and barreled headfirst into the bars of his cell door, injuring his head, according to Willoughby.

He was rushed to the hospital and was being treated. When he's conscious, authorities hoped to arraign him on multiple charges including homicide and attempted homicide, the lieutenant said.