New York man calmly walked into babershop and opened fire to begin a SHOOTING spree

Police in upstate New York today continue continue to surround an abandoned building where they believe a man barricaded himself after setting a house on fire, shooting dead four people in cold blood and firing on officers.

Law enforcement officials exchanged gunfire in the afternoon with 64-year-old Kurt Myers, who is being sought in connection to the deadly crime spree, state police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico said, adding that it was unknown if Myers was still alive.

‘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 with a fire in his apartment in the nearby village of Mohawk at about 9.30am yesterday.
 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 Ransear, 57, a retired corrections officer. 

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 23-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections.

John Seymour told his sister, Mary Hornett, the barbershop attack came out of nowhere.

A man watches from the window of a barbershop as officials search down the street for Myers

‘He just said that the guys were in the barbershop and this guy comes in and he says, "Hi John, do you remember me?" and my brother said, "Yes, Kurt, how are you?" and then he just started shooting,’ Hornett said.

Hornett said her brother, who was hospitalized in critical condition, was doing well after being shot in the left hand and right hip.

‘My brother couldn't think of any reason why he would do such a thing,’ she said of Myers, a former customer who hadn't been in the shop for a couple of years.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a press conference in Herkimer, called it ‘truly an inexplicable situation.’

‘There's no apparent motive to the best of our knowledge at this time to provoke these attacks,’ he said.

D'Amico said police had not had any communication with Myers, whose only known police record was a 1973 drunken-driving arrest.

Police positioned in front of a block of small businesses topped with apartments in the village of Herkimer were still looking for Myers this morning.

A local businessman, jeweler Fred Weisser, said police had evacuated people while Myers was believed to be in a building next door.

‘They're sending in a robot to check the place out,’ he said by telephone. ‘I guess we're stuck. We're between him and the cops. I don't want to step out and get clipped by a sniper.’

Myles Smith, who lives in one of the apartments above the shops, said by cellphone he had heard police trying to talk to Myers.

‘The snipers on the roof are sitting there,’ Smith said. ‘I ain't seen a whole lot of movement. I heard about five gunshots. I keep hearing them trying to talk him out, but I don't think he's coming out.’

The rear of the small building at 32 South Washington St. in Mohawk where Myers lived was burned out, and police continued to guard the building, where they found guns and ammunition. It was unclear if they were in his apartment.

Neighbors said they barely knew Myers, who rarely spoke, left every morning in his red Jeep and came back.

Traci Randall said the only time she remembers speaking to her next-door neighbor was when he yelled at her son because he thought he had shot an air pellet at his Jeep.

‘He would walk by himself. He was kind of a loner. No wife,’ she said.

Neighbors said he never had visitors or friends. Gary Urich said Myers wouldn't even say much as `Hi' to him when walking by his porch.

‘I said, "How are you doing?'"No response. He just walked by,’ he said.

Michele Mlinar, a bartender at Cangee's Bar and Grille in Herkimer, said Myers frequently went in and had a bottle or two of Coors Light and left without speaking to anyone. She said he was always alone and she didn't even know his name until police released his mug shot on Wednesday. Cangee's owner Candy Rellin called Myers ‘just an odd little man.’

The two villages are about 65 miles east of Syracuse, on opposite sides of the Mohawk River in a region known as the Mohawk Valley.

James Baron, the mayor of Mohawk described his village as close-knit and friendly, ‘the kind of place where you'd say, "Oh, it would never happen here."'

Elizabeth Cirelli was shocked by Stefka's slaying. He was a neighbor in Herkimer.

‘He was a great guy, a really nice person. This is horrific. We really couldn't believe it,’ she said.

Herkimer County Community College lifted a lockdown during the afternoon, and all but a few schools near the scene also were releasing students. D'Amico said most of the three-block neighborhood around the search scene was evacuated.

Officers raided Myers' apartment and found half a dozen guns and ammunition, according to the Utica Observer-Dispatch. 

The newspaper also reported that the gunman may have worked at the car wash where two people were killed.

'We saw a gunman walking around the shop,' one woman who was at the car wash told WKTV. She said she saw two people who were shot on the ground. 

'Then he took off in a Jeep Wrangler,' she said of the shooter, adding, 'There were empty rifle shells on the ground.'

Harry Montgomery Sr. of Mohawk was among the victims who were shot and killed at John’s Barber Shop. 

Montgomery, who is in his late 60s, was visiting the shop for a haircut, according to his son. The other victims haven't yet been identified.

'My sister was at the bank, cashing a check when she heard all the commotion,' Montgomery told the Observer-Dispatch. 'She came out to see what was going on and found out it was Dad who got shot.'

Myers is described as about 5-foot-11 with white hair and a white beard. He was last seen wearing a flannel shirt.

Michele Mlinar, who works as a bartender at Cangees Bar and Grill in Herkimer, said Myers had been a regular customer of hers for about 10 years.

'When I saw his picture, I just got sick to my stomach,' she told the Observer-Dispatch. 'It could have been here. It could have been us.'

She said he wasn't a 'people person' and 'he would never talk to anyone else' when he visited the bar. He would usually visit the bar on Fridays and Saturdays and drink two Coors and listen to live music, she added.

She also noted that he was kind to the staff, but seemed 'very jittery and nervous.'

Source: DailyMail