Police: Hempfield man shot, killed woman’s ex-boyfriend outside hotel
Share this post:
A Hempfield man is in jail, accused of gunning down a man last month outside a Forest County hotel during a confrontation over a woman.
Richard M. Gardner Jr., 36, of Country Estates Drive, is being held in the Warren County Prison without bail in connection with the May 22 shooting at the Kelly Hotel in Marienville, just off Route 66.
Witnesses told state police investigators they saw Gardner just after midnight waiting in his pickup truck outside his girlfriend Renee Michelle Gordon’s apartment at the hotel.
When Gordon arrived in the company of a former boyfriend, Brian J. Schill, 35, of Tionesta, witnesses including Gordon told investigators Gardner confronted the pair, pulled out a 9 mm handgun and shot Schill, Trooper Joshua Thorpe said in court documents.
Another tenant told investigators he saw Gardner at the hotel at 7:30 p.m. May 21, hours before the shooting, knocking on Gordon’s apartment door without anyone answering. The witness said Gardner then moved his truck “to a tree line … across from the hotel” and waited.
Around midnight, the witness told police he heard two gunshots, looked out his window and saw Gardner and Gordon there “and a body lying in the parking lot.”
Gordon told police she met Gardner in February through an online dating service. She told troopers she dated Schill for four years before meeting Gardner but planned to reconcile.
“Gordon further stated that she was surprised that Gardner had driven up (from Hempfield) to see her. She said she was planning to end her relationship with Gardner and had been communicating with him less the last week,” Thorpe reported.
Gardner was among those who called 911 to report the shooting, Thorpe reported.
Gardner told an emergency dispatcher “it was self-defense,” according to police.
Police arrested Gardner at the scene and seized a 9 mm handgun that was believed to have been used in the shooting and was lying on the ground near Schill’s body. Police also collected two spent shell casings, Thorpe reported.
Gardner is charged with criminal homicide. A preliminary hearing is scheduled July 21, according to court dockets.