Americas

Home page

Americas

Four shot dead in neighboring New York towns

13 March 2013 23:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Four people were killed in shootings at a carwash and a barbershop in neighboring towns in upstate New York on Wednesday, and police surrounded a building where the lone gunman was believed to be barricaded, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

The shootings took place in the Village of Herkimer at about 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT) and in the Village of Mohawk, said Sergeant Martin Luppino of the Herkimer Police Department.

A hunt for the gunman, identified by police as Kurt Meyers, 64, led local and state police on Wednesday afternoon to an empty building in the downtown section of Herkimer, a town of 7,700 people. State police in military garb and using an armored vehicle surrounded the building.

"We believe he's barricaded in a building downtown. We believe he's armed," said a spokesman for the Herkimer Police Department.

The shootings left two people dead at Gaffey's Car Wash on Mohawk Street in Herkimer and two dead at John's Barber Shop in Mohawk, police said. Authorities declined to provide any information the victims.

The killings took place shortly after a fire was reported at the Mohawk apartment house where Meyers lived, said Mohawk Mayor James Baron. The fire, which badly damaged the interior of the building, and the shootings were connected, the mayor said.

Schools in the area were placed on lockdown as a result, Baron said. Radio station WBIX reported the lockdown would continue after the usual dismissal time and children would be released only to parents or guardians.

Residents of the two towns, which face each other across the Mohawk River, were advised to stay indoors until the suspect was apprehended.

"I just want people to be safe," said Baron, who said a crime of similar magnitude has never occurred in his sleepy town of 2,700 people.

The two towns are located about midway between Albany, the state's capital, and the city of Syracuse.