Monroe residents reacted Saturday with shock that a 54-year-old man drove to Town Hall and shot himself to death the night before.
"You don't hear about this sort of thing very often. It's a small, quiet town, basically for raising a family," said Peter Tang, 61, as he walked out of the Edith Wheeler Memorial Library.

Janice Castle, 47, who's lived in town for 12 years, said she was surprised and unsettled by the public suicide. "I guess you never know what's going to happen, no matter where you are, with all these crazy things going on in the world," she said. Police said the man, whom they would not identify, drove to the north side of Town Hall and parked in one of eight parking spaces reserved for police officers.

The man then shot himself, narrowly missing police officers, about 8:11 p.m., according to police Lt. Brian McCauley.

Police released no other information Saturday, citing an ongoing investigation. Police also would not identify the man, saying all of his family members had not been notified.

A Monroe woman who lives across Church Street from the Police Department, which is in back of Town Hall, said she saw a police cruiser's flashing lights in the parking lot about 8:30 p.m. but figured someone had been pulled over for drunken driving.

"Whatever it was, it was a quiet thing. There was not a lot of commotion," she said.

There was no sign outside the Police Department early Saturday afternoon of what happened the night before.