Herkimer County shootings

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Herkimer County shootings
Location Mohawk and Herkimer, New York, United States
DateMarch 13, 2013 (2013-03-13) (UTC-04)
Attack type
 Spree shooting, mass murder, mass shooting
Weapons Shotgun [1]
Deaths5 (including the perpetrator) [2]
Injured2
PerpetratorKurt Myers
MotiveUnknown

The Herkimer County shootings were a shooting spree that took place on March 13, 2013, in Herkimer County, New York, United States.

Contents

Incident

Kurt Myers, a 64-year-old resident of the village of Mohawk, set fire to his apartment before 9:30am and proceeded to a barber shop in Mohawk. Myers briefly spoke to the barbershop owner John Seymour before opening fire, killing two customers and injuring Seymour and another customer. He proceeded to a car wash in the nearby village of Herkimer, where he killed an employee and a customer. [3] [4]

Myers was pursued by police and eventually cornered in an abandoned bar in Herkimer. The standoff lasted overnight. Police entered the building around 8am the next day. Myers shot and killed a police dog named "Ape" and the police returned fire, killing him. [4] [5]

The autopsy said that the assailant died from internal bleeding after he was shot multiple times in the heart, aorta, liver, lungs, and right kidney. [6]

Aftermath

At the time of the shooting, Myers had no savings, no job, and was maxed out on all his credit cards. He also had very few items of furniture in his apartment. [7] Although authorities found evidence of an affair which Myers had with a married woman for two decades which was ultimately ended by the woman, police ultimately concluded that Myers' actions were motivated by his financial problems. [8]

Myers had no previous criminal record aside from a 1973 arrest for drunken driving. Neighbors said he never had visitors or friends: the few who were familiar described him as an "odd little man" who rarely spoke. [4]

The shootings occurred a few months after the signing of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013, or NY SAFE Act. The act was discussed in the light of these shootings, and vice versa. [4] [9]

The building where the stand-off took place was demolished in 2015 after a series of minor collapses. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herkimer County, New York</span> County in New York, United States

Herkimer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,139. Its county seat is Herkimer. The county was created in 1791 north of the Mohawk River out of part of Montgomery County. It is named after General Nicholas Herkimer, who died from battle wounds in 1777 after taking part in the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War. The county is part of the Mohawk Valley region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utica, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Utica is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, it is approximately 95 mi (153 km) west-northwest of Albany, 55 mi (89 km) east of Syracuse and 240 mi (386 km) northwest of New York City. Utica and the nearby city of Rome anchor the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area comprising all of Oneida and Herkimer Counties.

Mohawk is a village in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 2,731 at the 2010 census. The village was named after the adjacent Mohawk River.

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Frankfort is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The town is named after one of its earliest settlers, Lawrence (Lewis) Frank. The town of Frankfort includes a village, also called Frankfort. Frankfort is located east of Utica, and the Erie Canal passes along its northern border. At the time of the 2020 census, the population was 7,011, down from 7,636 in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herkimer (village), New York</span> Village in Herkimer County, New York, US

Herkimer is a village on the north side of the Mohawk River and the county seat of Herkimer County, New York, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Utica. As of the 2020 Census, it had a population of 7,234, and a predicted population of 7,283 on July 1, 2022. It was part of the Burnetsfield Patent and the first colonial settlement this far west in the Mohawk Valley.

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Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 4,605 at the time of the 2020 census, which is the second-smallest city population in the state, ahead of only the city of Sherrill. The city is built on both sides of the Mohawk River, at a point at which rapids had impeded travel upriver. Transportation through the valley was improved by construction of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825 and connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald J. Mitchell</span> American politician

Donald Jerome Mitchell represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1983.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr.</span> 2011 fatal police shooting of a black man

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. was fatally shot by police on November 19, 2011, in White Plains, New York. After his LifeAid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to his home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain's door. According to police, Chamberlain charged at them with a knife and he was tasered, and then fatally shot. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, black, retired Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert pendant due to a chronic heart problem.

The Times Telegram is an American daily newspaper published in Herkimer, New York. It serves southern Herkimer County and the westernmost part of adjacent Montgomery County in the Mohawk Valley region of New York State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Stephon Clark</span> 2018 fatal shooting by police in Sacramento, California

In the late evening of March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed in Meadowview, Sacramento, California by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, two officers of the Sacramento Police Department in the backyard of his grandmother's house while he had a phone in his hand. The encounter was filmed by police video cameras and by a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department helicopter which was involved in observing Clark on the ground and in directing ground officers to the point at which the shooting took place. The officers stated that they shot Clark, firing 20 rounds, believing that he had pointed a gun at them. Police found only a cell phone at the s scene. While the Sacramento County Coroner's autopsy report concluded that Clark was shot seven times, including three shots to the right side of the back, the pathologist hired by the Clark family stated that Clark was shot eight times, including six times in the back.

Mohawk Valley General Hospital was an 84-bed hospital owned "by two adjoining towns." It was located in the village of Ilion, New York, a part of Herkimer Country.

References

  1. ↑ "Herkimer, New York spree shooter killed in SWAT assault". masslive. March 14, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  2. ↑ Larson, Jamie; Santora, Marc (March 13, 2013). "Man Sought in Upstate Shootings Is Killed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 24, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  3. ↑ Huh, Roomie (March 14, 2013). "Upstate New York Shooting Update: Kurt Myers, suspected gunman, killed by police in shootout". CBS News. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Carpenter, Jake (March 14, 2013). "Four killed in upstate New York shootings, police say". CNN. Archived from the original on December 5, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  5. ↑ Rondenelli, Jim (March 12, 2014). "Remembering Ape One Year Later". Big Frog 104. Archived from the original on September 1, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  6. ↑ LaDUCA, ROCCO. "Police release autopsy results for Herkimer Co. killer". Utica Observer Dispatch. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Police: Suspect in Herkimer Co. shooting rampage was penniless". Times Telegram. March 18, 2013. Archived from the original on September 1, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Newly discovered love notes reveal Kurt Myers' personal life". Observer-Dispatch . March 13, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  9. ↑ Fries, Amanda (April 4, 2013). "Despite shootings, Herkimer County remains pro-gun". Times Telegram. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  10. ↑ Sorrell-White, Stephanie. "Demolition of former Glory Days building continues". Herkimer Times Telegram. Archived from the original on August 25, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.


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