Suspected gunman Kurt Myers. (
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The shots were believed to have come from the area around Glory Days on West Main Street. (AP)
Law enforcement officers walk along Main Street in Herkimer while searching for Kurt Meyers, said Joseph Malone, the police chief for Herkimer and Mohawk. Officials say guns and ammunition were found inside his Mohawk apartment after emergency crews were sent to a fire there Wednesday morning. (AP)
Firefighters battle a fire at an apartment building at 32 S. Washington St. in Mohawk. There are reports that the fugitive shooter may have lived at the building. (AP)
Heavily armed police surrounded businesses in upstate Herkimer, NY last night, cornering a crazed gunman wanted for senselessly killing four and seriously wounding two in a wild rampage.
New York state police vowed to wait out Kurt Myers, the man suspected of gunning down the victims then holing up in an abandoned building. Police kept vigilant watch there into Thursday morning, periodically blaring sirens in an apparent attempt to encourage Myers to surrender, if alive. Booms also were heard.
Several gunshots were heard, and police used a bullhorn to order the suspect to keep his weapon down and surrender, local TV reports said.
A black armored vehicle and a robot outfitted with a camera were used in the standoff, which was also aided by SWAT teams and a police helicopter.
“This is truly an inexplicable situation,” Gov. Cuomo said at a news conference in Herkimer.
“There is no apparently rational motive, to the best of our knowledge at this time, to provoke these attacks,” Cuomo said.
Myers set fire to his apartment in nearby Mohawk, NY at about 9:30 a.m. and then drove to nearby John’s Barber Shop, where he used a shotgun to cold-bloodedly shoot dead two people and wound two others, authorities said.
Myers, 64, has lived most of his life in the area.
According to relatives of one victim, Myers walked into the shop and asked its owner, identified in public records as John Seymour: “Do you remember me?”
“Yes,” Seymour replied.
Myers shot Seymour in the leg. He survived.
Next Myers shot dead two people who were getting haircuts.
One of the dead was Harry Montgomery, 68, a lifelong Mohawk resident who had three children and five grandchildren, relatives said.
Montgomery’s daughter, Linda Springer, said the family had no idea why Myers opened fire. “We have no connection with this guy at all. If he walked up to any of us on the street, we would have no idea who he is,” Springer said.
Myers then drove about a mile across the Mohawk River to Herkimer, where he killed two customers at Gaffey’s Fast Lube and Car Wash.
As police searched frantically and local schools and Herkimer’s community college were locked down, Myers went to ground.
Cops finally located him around 1:30 p.m., when the suspect opened fire on them as they searched downtown Herkimer. It was possible an officer fired back, authorities said.
Myers was believed holed up in an abandoned building. State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said officers could wait him out. “We are concerned about officers’ safety, so we are in no rush to bring this to a conclusion,” he said.
Several rifles and a cache of ammo were found inside Myers’ burned-out home, reports said.
Montgomery’s relatives said they were told by police that Myers’ neighbors smelled a chemical odor coming from his apartment early this morning.
When the neighbors asked the suspect what was going on, he slammed his door in their faces.
Myers is a lifelong resident of the area. As a teen, he worked at a textile business near Utica, said a former co-worker.
Herkimer and Mohawk are neighboring villages about 65 miles east of Syracuse, on opposite sides of the Mohawk River in a region known as the Mohawk Valley.
James Baron, the 29-year-old mayor of Mohawk, said he doesn’t know Myers but knew “at least” two of the people shot in the barber shop. The mayor described his village as close-knit and friendly, “the kind of place where you’d say, ‘Oh, it would never happen here.’”
The two economically distressed villages are two miles away from Ilion, where a two-century-old Remington Arms gun plant is a major employer.
“Everybody’s on lockdown, all the schools, the college, the village. It’s very, very scary,” said Amanda Viscomi, Herkimer’s acting clerk-treasurer.
With AP