A deranged man who gunned down four people and wounded two others was shot dead Thursday after he capped an orgy of violence in upstate New York by killing a police dog.
Kurt Myers was killed after officers stormed the abandoned bar in downtown Herkimer where he had kept an army of cops at bay in a 19-hour standoff.
“He was waiting for us,” Trooper Jack Keller said. “He kills the dog. They hear shots fired. Our teams returned fire and the suspect gets shot.”
It was a violent end to a 24-hour drama that shattered the peace in Herkimer and Mohawk, two small New York towns east of Utica where Myers, a 64-year-old loner, had been regarded as more of an oddity than a menace.
Police still did not have a motive for the mayhem.
“He came out of nowhere,” Chief Joseph Malone, who heads the police force in both towns, told the Utica Observer-Dispatch newspaper. “He was not on our radar and hasn't caused any problems.”
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Survivors of the slaughter said they could not explain why Myers, an unmarried oddball who had lived in the area for years, suddenly snapped.
“My brother couldn’t think of any reason why he would do such a thing,” said Mary Hornett, whose barber brother, John Seymour, was in critical condition after being shot in the left hand and right hip.
No police officers were injured taking Myers down, but a dog assigned to the FBI was killed when the gunman fired through a first-floor door.
Officials did not release any details about the killed canine.
“We commend the courage and extraordinary efforts of the state police, the FBI and local law enforcement officials in finding the suspect and ending this horrific spree of violence and bloodshed,” Gov. Cuomo said in a statement “It’s now time for mourning those who we lost in this senseless act of violence.”
Myers lived in an apartment building in Mohawk and police were seen removing a number of rifles from one of the residences. They did not confirm that the arsenal was his.
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The bloodletting began on Wednesday morning when Myers set a fire in his building, grabbed a shotgun, and walked over to a nearby barbershop where he used to get his hair cut.
“Hi John, do you remember me?” Myers asked Seymour, witnesses said.
“Yes Kurt, how are you?” Seymour replied.
That’s when Myers began blasting, police said.
Myers fled in a red Jeep Cherokee, leaving in his wake two customers Harry Montgomery and Michael Ransear. He also wounded Seymour and customer Dan Haslauer.
His next stop was Gaffy’s Fast Lube, a car wash in neighboring Herkimer, where Myers fatally shot two more people — employee Thomas Stefka and customer Michael Renshaw, police said.
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With cops in hot pursuit, Myers ditched the Jeep in downtown Herkimer and hid in the basement of an abandoned building after firing off several more shots at the officers chasing him.
Thus began an overnight standoff that ended around 8 a.m. Thursday when cops sicced a brave dog on a demented loner who refused to give himself up.
Police said that other than a drunken driving arrest in 1973, Myers did not have a record.
Town residents said Myers was “very jittery and nervous” and kept to himself.
“He just wasn't a people person, and he would never talk to anyone else," said Michele Mlinar, a server at a local bar Myers patronized for the past decade.
With News Wire Services
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