NJ corrections officer found guilty in medical office fatal shooting

🔴 A NJ corrections officer was found guilty of killing an employee at a Mount Laurel urology office in 2020

🔴 Bruce Gomola Jr. was not found guilty, however of the most serious charge, first degree murder

🔴 He shot a patient services rep when he became upset about his dad's appointment

MOUNT LAUREL —  A Burlington Township man was found guilty of fatally shooting an employee and wounding a patient at a medical office in the summer of 2020.

After deliberating for approximately five hours over the course of five days, a Burlington County jury returned a guilty verdict on Wednesday against 54-year-old Bruce Gomola Jr. on charges of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, and second-degree aggravated assault.

Jurors did not convict Gomola of the more serious charge of first-degree murder.

The incident occurred on July 24, 2020, at the New Jersey Urology office on Midatlantic Drive in Mount Laurel.

Gomola, a corrections officer at the Burlington County jail at the time, became upset about the details of an appointment there concerning his father.

When 44-year-old Stephanie Horton, a patient services representative tried to discuss the situation with Gomola, he pushed her, pulled out a .40-caliber handgun, and shot her in the chest.

The bullet also exited through her back and struck a female patient in the knee.

Gomola then left the building and drove away. But he returned to the scene and surrendered to the police.

Horton was pronounced dead a short time later at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The other victim, a woman in her fifties, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Gomola has been lodged in the Morris County Correctional Facility in Morristown.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14.

Jen Ursillo is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at jennifer.ursillo@townsquaremedia.com

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