True Crime
Berwick police charged Nicholas Peter Romeo, 22, with criminal homicide in the shooting death of Christopher James.
Police say a SWAT team took Romeo into custody around 6 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, in Berwick, Pennsylvania. He was arraigned the same morning on criminal homicide, burglary and evidence tampering charges and is held without bail. The affidavit says James, 25, named "RJ" before he became unresponsive.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
The affidavit leans on two things: a dying man's two-letter answer and a car on neighborhood cameras. Both are the kind of evidence that sounds airtight in a charging document and gets picked apart at a preliminary hearing, where the defense can ask who else goes by RJ and who was behind the wheel. The other fact that will draw attention is that Romeo was already out on bail, awaiting trial in an April robbery case in the same town.
Nicholas Peter Romeo, 22, of Berwick, Pennsylvania, has been charged with criminal homicide, burglary involving bodily injury and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in the shooting death of Christopher Cross James, 25, according to Berwick police and court records reported by NorthcentralPa.com and FOX56. Police said officers, assisted by the Columbia-Montour SWAT Team, served search warrants around 6 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, on South Oak Street and took Romeo into custody. He was arraigned Saturday morning before District Judge Craig Long and taken to Columbia County Prison, where he is held without bail.
Police were called to East Second and Walnut streets around 11:15 p.m. Oct. 12 for a report of a man shot, according to the affidavit as reported by NorthcentralPa.com. Officers found James between two vehicles with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso and back and a wound to his upper left arm. He was taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and pronounced dead at 12:47 a.m. Oct. 13. An autopsy found as many as seven 9 mm rounds in his body, the affidavit says.
Investigators said the shooting happened inside James' home on Walnut Street. The affidavit describes a forced rear door, what appeared to be blood on the kitchen floor, stairs and second-floor hallway, and a large amount of blood near a bedroom doorway. FOX56 reported police allege Romeo pried open the rear door during the night, went upstairs and shot James while he was in bed.
According to the affidavit, when James was asked who shot him, he answered "RJ" before becoming unresponsive. Police say Romeo is also known as Nicholas Romeo Jones, or RJ, and that the two men had once been friends but had an ongoing feud. Investigators said security video from homes and businesses tracked a car belonging to Romeo's girlfriend leaving a South Oak Street residence and returning, and showed the car in the area of the shooting.
Court records show Romeo was out on bail awaiting trial on charges from an April 7, 2026, assault and robbery on Market Street in Berwick, in which police say three men beat a man and took his handgun. Berwick police thanked the regional SWAT team, Pennsylvania State Police units and the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force, among others, and said the investigation remains active. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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