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The 58-year-old former borough police chief was found with a gunshot wound to the head at his 167 Kimber Street home, according to troopers and a contemporaneous report from the Allentown Morning Call.
Mickonis, by then a part-time officer for Blythe Township police, was discovered by his 16-year-old son and taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Pottsville, the newspaper reported. He was later airlifted to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville where he died the following day.
Police investigators say the former chief was shot from behind while solving a puzzle. The murder weapon, a .22-caliber pistol recovered from the scene, was later determined to be Mickonis's, according to a 2001 report by the Pottsville Republican Herald.
The deadly shooting was not the first time Mickonis had come under fire. In June 1980, while still serving as the New Philadelphia police chief, he was shot in the thigh and seriously injured in front of department headquarters on Macomb Street, the Morning Call reported.
A 25-year-old borough man was arrested in connection with the 1980 attack but was later released when a key witness refused to testify, according to the newspaper.
Anyone with information is asked to call Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-472-8477 or submit an anonymous tip online.
(Note: This story has been edited for clarity.)
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