BLOOMSBURG — Two men are dead following a late Friday afternoon shooting at a Bloomsburg restaurant.
Police said Thomas Yurko, 117 Meadow Lane, Orangeville, entered the Applebee’s restaurant on Route 11 at 4:20 p.m. and shot Mark Wagner, 606 Sunset Drive, Bloomsburg.
Police said the shooting occurred at a distance of three to five feet. Yurko then shot himself in the head.
Police are trying to determine the cause of the shooting, according to Lt. Joseph Wondoloski.
There were a number of employees and customers in the restaurant when the shooting took place, police said.
Employees who wished to be anonymous said a man, apparently Yurko, walked into the restaurant and then asked for an individual by name. He then left the restaurant and returned with a gun and shot Wagner.
Jeremy Mock, 20, was working at the car service side of the restaurant when the shooting occurred. Minutes after the shootings, he called his mother, Jodi Klecker, who was shopping in a Wal-Mart at the time.
“This is not the kind of call you want to get from your son. He was shaken up,” Klecker said. “He scared me. He said that someone walked into the restaurant, shot someone and then turned the gun on himself. But he was OK, and his friends who worked at the restaurant were all OK.”
By 6 p.m., Mock was staying at a friend’s house, “recovering,” his mother said. He was not immediately available.
The Columbia County coroner and district attorney responded to the scene, as well as East Bloomsburg police, state police at Bloomsburg, Berwick, Scott Township and Montour County officers.
“There must have been 40 policeman surrounding the restaurant,” said Ryan Beers, of Bloomsburg, who arrived at the scene minutes after the shooting. He was going to the restaurant for a late afternoon snack.
Beers, who had just moved to Bloomsburg from Paxinos, said, “Things like this aren’t supposed to happen here. You hear about things like this in big cities. It’s very sad.”
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2 men die in Bloomsburg restaurant shooting
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