Just a week after Eunice Dwumfour, a Republican councilwoman in Sayreville, New Jersey, was murdered just outside her home, another Republican councilman from a neighboring area was shot and killed on Thursday.

Russell Heller, aged 51, was a Republican on the Milford Borough Council.

He was found dead on Thursday morning outside of his workplace.  where investigating authorities believe that a former co-worker of his shot him dead in his vehicle.

The perpetrator, Gary T. Curtis, aged 58, reportedly shot himself just hours after murdering Heller in cold blood.

The killing is one among many assassination attempts on Republican politicians and officials this year, including a protester who attempted to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Investigating authorities say that they have not identified a motive for the murder at this time.

NBC News Reports

A New Jersey council member was fatally shot in a parking lot outside his job Wednesday, just one week after another politician in the state was gunned down in her car.

Russell Heller, 51, a Republican on the Milford Borough Council, was found dead just after 7 a.m. in the parking lot of PSE&G, the energy company where he worked, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office said.

Authorities quickly determined that a former employee of PSE&G, identified as Gary T. Curtis, 58, of Washington, had approached Heller in the parking lot and shot him outside his vehicle, the prosecutor’s office said.

Detectives were able to track Curtis down hours later to a parking lot area in Bridgewater Township, where they found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, it said. Curtis, who was in possession of a firearm at the time, was pronounced dead shortly after.

Detectives are still working to establish a motive in the incident, the prosecutor’s office said.

 

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.


We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.