https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/nearly-years-after-his-son-was-gunned-down-in-clay/article_2180998e-6415-11e8-9e16-b7f01c28bb83.html
TOM KNAPP | Staff Writer | June 12, 2018
On Sept. 25, 2014, two masked men broke into a Clay Township home and killed 23-year-old Brett Simmons.
His father, James Simmons, struggled with the intruders and was shot. He was critically wounded, and the killers fled.
Nearly four years later, police are still looking for suspects.
"We've interviewed close to 200 people on this case," Detective Theresa Stauffer, of Northern Lancaster County Regional police, said.
"There have been some leads that have come in over the last year," she added. "Nothing concrete, nothing we've been able to pursue any charges on. But there has been information trickling in."
Police responded to reports of a shooting at 580 Clearview Road.
According to reports, intruders entered the house through an unlocked door and went to Brett's bedroom. His father heard a commotion, investigated and saw Brett on the floor -- shot twice in the back -- and two masked men in the room.
He grappled with the men and was shot in the chest.
Blake, Brett's younger brother, hit one of the men with a lamp as they fled. Brett's mother, Lori, and another brother were home but didn't see the intruders.
James Simmons said he thinks about it daily.
"I grabbed the first guy. I was concentrating on him and the other guy, he reached over his shoulder and shot me pointblank," he recalled.
"When I close my eyes, it's burned in my retinas. The flash of the gun, I don't think it will ever go away."
Simmons, now 48 and living in Harrisburg, spent several weeks in jail after threatening to kill a man he believed was responsible for his son's death.
"I'm doing better now. It's taken me a long time to get where I am now," he said.
Even so, he's frustrated by the lack of progress.
"I've talked to psychics. I've talked to private detectives. I've gone any route I can, but my hands are tied," he said.
"I don't want to put myself, or my family, at risk."
Simmons said he rarely hears from police any more.
"The detective, Theresa Stauffer, says she's determined to solve this," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they have a pretty good idea, but there's not much evidence."
Simmons hoped clues from the scene -- a pair of glasses dropped by an assailant, shell casings from the gun -- would yield solid leads, but so far he's been disappointed.
He heard a man confessed to being the assailants' getaway driver, "but it didn't go anywhere."
"I still get messages from people who say they know something, but they don't want to get involved with police," he said. "I've given police as much information as I can. They tell me to let them handle it."
District Attorney Craig Stedman in 2014 called the shooting "a pre-planned home-invasion" and the gunmen "especially violent and extremely dangerous."
Police said it may have been drug-related, with robbery the motive. They said the assailants may have attended a party Brett and Blake hosted a week before the shooting.
Simmons said "there were knives pulled, some threats made" at the party, but the men involved had alibis.
Stauffer believes it was a targeted attack, but hesitates to say if the murder was planned.
"I don't want to speculate ... but I think their intent was to go in and rob Brett Simmons," she said. "When you rob someone with a gun, there is that risk of loss of life."
There's no indication anything was taken from the house, Stauffer said.
Whatever the plan, she said, it was interrupted when Brett's father ran into the room.
Still, she has "great hope" the murder will be solved.
"Somebody knows who killed Brett Simmons," she said.
Only one intruder fired the fatal shots, she said. "We hope the other person will come forward and tell us what they know."
Simmons, a 2009 Ephrata graduate, worked at a banquet facility and studied physical education at HACC. He was "a very nice, kind, easy-to-get-along-with person who was liked by everybody," a colleague said shortly after the murder.
James Simmons said some people wrote Brett off as "some college kid who sold some weed."
But "he wasn't a bad kid," he said.
Rumors that Brett had a lot of cash from selling marijuana weren't true, his father said.
"I knew he sold pot, I'm not going to lie. I told him, there's no such thing as a successful drug dealer," he said.
A day before the shooting, Simmons overheard his son tell someone he'd stopped selling.
"The night he died, he sat and talked to me for an hour about his plans," Simmons said. "He thanked me for helping him. ... It's weird, it was like he was saying goodbye."
The intruders who killed Brett Simmons were described as young, light-skinned males, of average build, both between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11. One of the men was said to have dark eyes and blond hair.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Northern Lancaster County Regional police at 717-733-0965.
Tipsters also may call Lancaster City/County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-322-1913 or anonymously text LANCS plus a message to 847411 (TIP411).
Crime Stoppers has offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Brett Simmons' killer.
Regional police Chief David Steffen said he hopes publicity on the case will generate useful tips.
"That's one of best avenues for solving crimes -- engaging the public," he said.