More than 100 soldiers and airmen with the Pennsylvania National Guard competed in the annual Governor’s Twenty marksmanship competition at Fort Indiantown Gap on May 9-11.

The competition, which is organized and run by the Pennsylvania National Guard’s Marksmanship Training Unit and this year featured the efforts of 107 service members, determines the top 20 marksmen in the state. The 20 top scorers earn the right to wear the coveted Governor’s Twenty tab on their uniform.

First-place finisher Major Ian Swisher pointed out that several first-time competitors made the top 20.

“Winning feels great, a validation of sorts, to the time and energy I’ve devoted to improving my marksmanship,” Swisher, an operations officer with the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, said in a release. “However, the real winners are the dozens of new shooters we welcomed to the firing line. Everyone, regardless of rank or experience, learns something about themselves or marksmanship every time they compete. That’s how we should be measuring value in competition; it’s the knowledge and experience we take back to our formations that counts.”

The Governor’s Twenty tab, worn on the left shoulder, is a state-level National Guard award that is presented every year and is reflected on a service members’ official personnel record. It is recognized by both the Army and Air Force.

Another top three finisher, Capt. Phillip Wright, competed in 2020 with low expectations, but ended up earning the tab.

“I went in more open minded to learn. I was ecstatic to earn the tab,” said Wright. “This year, I went in with the expectation to finish within the top three because I have been shooting competitively since 2020.”

In order to be competitive, guardsmen need to be proficient with rifles and pistols. Each competitor fires an M17 pistol and M4 carbine. The contest also included an M17 pistol 30 yard slow fire match and a M4 carbine 400 yard slow fire match.

The competition gives an opportunity to guardsmen to apply marksmanship fundamentals. That was one of the motivators for Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Costello, who also finished in the top three, but he also described his participation in the competition as “an honor.”

“I would love to see this match continue to grow,” Costello said. “I get to see friends that I don’t often get to see, I have an opportunity to pass knowledge on to new shooters and I always learn something new myself.”

Here are the Top 20 results, in order from 1st to 20th:

• Maj. Ian Swisher
• Capt. Philip Wright
• Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Costello
• Chief Master Sgt. Edward Altmeyer
• Sgt. Dylan Albert
• Staff Sgt. Luke Heim
• Master Sgt. Shawn McCreary
• Staff Sgt. Robert Robbins
• Staff Sgt. John Rebuck
• Staff Sgt. Zachary Paff
• Sgt. Brennan Koji
• Sgt. Croft Howley
• Sgt. Jack Banducci
• Sgt. James Reddington
• 2nd Lt. Edward Hay
• Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Brick
• Sgt. 1st Class Sean Whaley
• Sgt. Terry Bennett
• Sgt. Craig Buick
• Staff Sgt. Jonathan DeLise

Questions about this story? Suggestions for a future LebTown article? Reach our newsroom using this contact form and we’ll do our best to get back to you.

Support local journalism.

Cancel anytime.

Already a member? Login here

Advertisement

Free news isn’t cheap. If you value the journalism LebTown provides to the community, then help us make it sustainable by becoming a champion of local news. You can unlock additional coverage for the community by supporting our work with a one-time contribution, or joining as a monthly or annual member. You can cancel anytime.

Related

A man has been charged with murder Thursday after a shooting left 2 dead and 3 others injured in what prosecutors described as a “cold-blooded” attack at a linen company near Philadelphia.

Wilbert Rosado-Ruiz, 61, has been charged with two counts of homicide, multiple counts of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and a firearms charge, according to Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon, Stollsteimer said.

Rosado-Ruiz was charged in connection to a shooting that occurred Wednesday morning at Delaware County Linen in Chester, a city south of Philadelphia. The family-owned company was founded in 1988 and provides linen rental and laundering services to businesses in southeastern Pennsylvania and surrounding states, its website said.

Stollsteimer said the shooting appeared to stem from a dispute between Rosado-Ruiz and a female colleague. It was unclear what led to the dispute between the suspect and his co-worker, authorities said.

Two brothers, identified as Leovanny Pena Pena and Giguenson Pena Pena, were killed and three others — including the colleague involved in the dispute — were wounded, authorities said. As of Thursday afternoon, two of the surviving victims were listed in stable condition while one was in critical condition but stable.

“This is a horrible, horrible event (that) should never happen,” Stollsteimer said at a news conference Thursday. “As I said yesterday, (shootings happen) too often in America. It could have happened in any community but it happened, unfortunately, here in the city of Chester.”

Ohio shooting: 3 killed, 3 others wounded following ‘chaotic’ shooting in Ohio; suspect at large

Gunman ‘methodically’ walked around, shooting victims

The shooting happened at about 8:30 a.m. and Chester Police Commissioner Steven Gretsky said officers arrived at a “very chaotic scene.” They found one man dead outside the business entrance and another dead inside.

According to Stollsteimer, surveillance video showed Rosado-Ruiz arriving at the business and having a verbal altercation with a female employee. He then went outside to make a phone call, returned with a gun, and opened fire.

“He methodically walked around the floor of the business,” Stollsteimer said.

The female colleague was the first victim in the incident and left the building after she was shot, according to Stollsteimer. As Rosado-Ruiz was leaving the building, he noticed the woman and fired several more shots but either misfired or ran out of ammunition, Stollsteimer added.

Rosado-Ruiz then fled from the scene but was soon taken into custody after an officer from nearby Trainer, Pennsylvania, heard the vehicle description and stopped the car, Gretsky said.

Stollsteimer added that although Rosado-Ruiz legally owned the gun that was used in the shooting, he faced a weapons charge because he did not have a license to carry a concealed weapon.

Latest workplace shooting in U.S.

There have been at least 168 mass shootings in the country so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun violence incidents. The organization defines mass shootings as shootings in which at least four people have been shot, not including the shooter, regardless of whether they die.

Mass killings, as defined by a tracker from USA TODAY, Northeastern University, and the Associated Press, include incidents in which four or more people, excluding the offender, are killed within a 24-hour time frame. There have been 15 such killings in 2024, according to the tracker.

The Chester, Pennsylvania, shooting is also the latest incident of workplace violence carried out by disgruntled workers or former employees. Assault is the fifth-leading cause of workplace deaths, according to the National Safety Council.

Between 2021 and 2022, the public service organization counted over 57,600 injuries. In 2022, there were 525 fatalities reported due to assault.

Last year, seven people were killed in two related shootings in Half Moon Bay, California, in what authorities described as an “instance of workplace violence.” In June 2022, three people were killed and three others injured — including the gunman — at a Maryland manufacturing facility.

About five months later, a gunman, who a witness said was targeting co-workers, killed six people at a Walmart in Virginia. In 2021, a former employee at a FedEx facility in Indiana killed eight people.

Though multiple workplace killings by employees have occurred in recent years, experts have said these incidents are comparatively rare when looking at all U.S. mass killings, USA TODAY reported in 2022.

“In terms of workplace homicides, most are actually committed not by employees,” James Alan Fox, a criminologist and professor at Northeastern University, previously told USA TODAY.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks with members of the media during a news conference in Yardley, Pa., Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

By MARC LEVY Associated Press

Pennsylvania lawmakers want Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Department of Aging to disclose more about the shortcomings it finds when it evaluates whether county-level agencies are properly investigating complaints about the abuse or neglect of older adults.

The effort comes as Republican state lawmakers have pressed Shapiro’s administration to do more to investigate the deaths of older adults who are the subject of an abuse or neglect complaint after Pennsylvania recorded a steep increase in such deaths.

Rep. Louis Schmitt, R-Blair, introduced legislation Wednesday requiring the department to publish the compliance status of each of the 52 county-level agencies that it’s supposed to inspect annually, and to publish a report on the findings.

“The public needs to know. The public deserves to know. The public has a right to know,” Schmitt said in an interview. “You cannot hide if you’re going to conduct public business, especially public business that affects the health and safety and welfare of seniors in Pennsylvania.”

The department told lawmakers earlier this year that it had deemed seven of the agencies to be noncompliant. The year before that, 13 were noncompliant when lawmakers asked.

In a statement, the Department of Aging said it looked forward to working with Schmitt. The department said it expects to introduce a new performance evaluation process beginning in June and will post results on its website.

The department has recently declined requests by The Associated Press for two sets of documents: one in which the department outlines to county-level agencies the shortcomings it found and another in which the county-level agency must explain how it will fix those shortcomings. The department, under Shapiro’s predecessor, former Gov. Tom Wolf, had provided such documents unredacted to the AP.

Those refusals come after a January evaluation of Philadelphia’s agency found that its protective services bureau had improperly handled 16 — or one-third — of 50 closed cases that were picked at random for the review.

The details of complaints, investigations and the identity of the person whose situation is in question are kept secret.

The Philadelphia Corporation For Aging declined to comment. A letter the department sent to the agency didn’t describe the problems or how the agency planned to fix them.

Asked about the fate of the 16 adults, the department said none of their cases “required a referral to law enforcement or a report to the coroner’s office.”

The department also said it is taking steps to help the Philadelphia agency, including by encouraging the agency to seek out a broader pool of applicants for caseworkers and supervisory staff and expanding training.

The department has contracts with 52 county-level “area agencies for aging” — nicknamed triple As — across Pennsylvania to field and investigate abuse and neglect complaints and, ultimately, ensure the older adult is safe and connected to the appropriate social services. Some are county-run and some are privately run.

Sheri McQuown, a protective services specialist who left the Department of Aging last year after almost seven years, said there is no reason the department cannot publish the findings from its evaluations and the local agencies’ corrective action plans.

“The public should know what they’re paying for, what they’re getting for their money, and older adults should know which triple As are effective and which are not,” McQuown said.

How the Philadelphia agency handles complaints has stoked repeated concerns. At one point, the state stepped in to handle investigations.

McQuown questioned whether the Department of Aging has the spine to hold the county-level agencies accountable. High numbers of deficiencies has long been the norm for Philadelphia and some other agencies, she said.

The county-level agencies do not always comply with state requirements that limit caseworkers’ caseloads, set deadlines to resolve cases and set timelines within which caseworkers must promptly see potential victims.

The agencies also decide which complaints to investigate, and state data has long shown disparities between the agencies in how often they deemed a complaint to be worthy of action.