After hours of confusion, gunfire and a long standoff with police officers in Herkimer County, New York, a gunman who shot six and killed four in a rampage was finally contained by cops.
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Kurt Myers, 64, was killed early Thursday by police who had been surrounding a block of small businesses in Herkimer since Wednesday when the rampage started.
Myers is suspected of killing four people at a car wash and a barbershop. An explosion and fire in the same area was also attributed to the gunman.
Hours later, a flurry of gunfire was heard near where police had narrowed their search.
Police officers were fired on from the upstate New York building on Wednesday afternoon while looking for Kurt Myers, state police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said.
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At least one officer returned fire.
“We’re in no rush to bring this to a conclusion,” D’Amico said, adding that the main objective was to make sure no one else was hurt.
Police said Myers’ rampage started in the nearby village of Mohawk at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. D’Amico said Myers then drove to John’s Barber Shop around the corner and used a shotgun to kill two customers, whom he identified as Harry Montgomery, 68, and Michael Rancier, 57. The shop’s owner, John Seymour, and another customer, Dan Haslauer, were listed in critical condition at a Utica hospital.
D’Amico said the gunman then drove to Gaffy’s Fast Lube in nearby Herkimer and used the shotgun to kill Thomas Stefka, an employee, and Michael Renshaw, a customer who was a 20-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections.
Myers had no previous police record aside from a 1973 drunken-driving arrest. Police are investigating the murders for a motive.
Our thoughts and prayers to those affected in yesterday’s massacre.
SOURCE: WNYC
