Middletown teen charged with shooting into Falls home after fight over Instagram account
A 19-year-old Middletown man is accused of firing seven shots into a Falls home last year following a large fight in a school parking lot over a fake social media account that smeared the memory of another teen.
Authorities allege that a confidential informant identified Gavin Stanec, who also uses the name Gavin Nicol, as the shooter involved in the Aug 23 incident in Falls.
Eight people, including an 11-year-old, were inside the home when the shooting happened, but no injuries were reported, according to a probable cause affidavit.
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Stanec faces multiple felony and misdemeanor charges including aggravated and simple assault, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, carrying a firearm without a concealed carry license and recklessly endangering another person.
He was arraigned Friday before District Judge Jan Vislosky and sent to Bucks County Corrections Facility in lieu of 10% of $950,000 bail. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victims.
Falls police initially responded to the area of Levittown Parkway and Willow Way for a report of road rage where a driver alleged a white SUV cut him off and then fired a gun at him before fleeing into the Willow Wood neighborhood.
When police started to check the area a homeowner on Willow Drive told an officer that someone shot at her home. A short time later another officer radioed that a white Dodge Durango carrying one of the alleged shooters was last seen on Willow Drive near Mill Creek Road.
Police found seven 9-millimeter casings and one 45-caliber casing in the street near the Willow Drive house, the affidavit said.
The next day police executed a search warrant and collected seven bullets from areas inside the home including one bullet that went through a bedroom wall and struck a pillow on a bed. The damage to the home was estimated at more than $5,000, police said.
Police learned that three of the eight people inside the home at the time of the shooting were involved in a large fight earlier that night in the parking lot of the Penn Valley Elementary School.
The fight between two groups of juveniles and young adults was reportedly sparked by accusations involving a fake Instagram account used to desecrate the memory of a 17-year-old Falls boy who died in a car accident in December 2021, the affidavit said.
Police were not called while the fight was happening. Two people reported they were cut with sharp objects and sought treatment at a hospital and were released, police said.
About a week after the shooting, police executed a search warrant on a white Dodge Durango suspected to be the vehicle seen leaving the area shortly after the shooting on Willow Drive, the affidavit said. In the vehicle police confiscated a folding knife and four 45-caliber bullets.
In mid-October, police spoke with a “confidential informant “ who alleged that Stanec admitted to him he committed the shooting on Willow Drive. Stanec allegedly admitted he got out of his vehicle and fired shots at the home because he knew people inside had allegedly “stabbed his friends” earlier in the evening.
Stanec is under 21 years old and ineligible to obtain a conceal carry permit in Pennsylvania.
According to the affidavit, Stanec claimed that he used two guns with different calibers and threw one of the guns away at the scene after it jammed or was empty. Later, Stanec returned to retrieve the gun but it was gone.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Middletown man accused of shooting at Falls after Instagram fight
