Herkimer County shootings | |
---|---|
Location | Mohawk and Herkimer, New York, United States |
Date | March 13, 2013 (UTC-04) |
Attack type | Spree shooting, mass murder, mass shooting |
Weapons | Shotgun [1] |
Deaths | 5 (including the perpetrator) [2] |
Injured | 2 |
Perpetrator | Kurt Myers |
Motive | Unknown |
The Herkimer County shootings were a shooting spree that took place on March 13, 2013, in Herkimer County, New York, United States.
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]
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. [6] 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. [7]
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] [8]
The building where the stand-off took place was demolished in 2015 after a series of minor collapses. [9]
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.
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.
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.
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.
Herkimer is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States, southeast of Utica. It is named after Nicholas Herkimer. The population was 9,566 at the 2020 census, down from 10,175 in 2010.
Little Falls is a city in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 4,946 at the time of the 2010 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.
The Battle of Oriskany was a significant engagement of the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War, and one of the bloodiest battles in the conflict between Patriot forces and those loyal to Great Britain. On August 6, 1777, several hundred of Britain's Indigenous allies, accompanied by Loyalists of the King's Royal Regiment of New York and the British Indian Department, ambushed a Patriot militia column which was marching to relieve the siege of Fort Stanwix. This was one of the few battles in which the majority of the participants were American colonists. Patriots and allied Oneidas fought against Loyalists and allied Iroquois and Mississaugas. No British regulars were involved; however, a detachment of Hessians was present.
Central New York is the central region of New York state, including:
Herkimer Home State Historic Site is a historic house museum in Herkimer County, New York, United States. Herkimer Home is in the north part of the Town of Danube, south of the Mohawk River.
Donald Jerome Mitchell represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1983.
On March 10, 2009, Michael Kenneth McLendon, 28, fatally shot ten people and wounded six others between the communities of Kinston, Samson, and Geneva, Alabama. McLendon's shooting spree was the deadliest mass shooting in Alabama's history.
William Ray Bonner is a former service station attendant who went on a shooting spree through the South Side area of Los Angeles, California, on April 22, 1973, killing six people and wounding nine others. The rampage ended with his arrest after he had been injured in a shootout with police.
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.
On June 7, 2013, a spree shooting occurred in Santa Monica, California. Its catalyst was a domestic dispute and subsequent fire at a home, followed by a series of shootings near and on the Santa Monica College campus. Six people were killed, including the suspect, and four injured. The shooter — 23-year-old John Zawahri — was killed by police officers when he exchanged gunfire with them at the Santa Monica College library.
On the night of February 20, 2016, a spree shooting took place at an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership, and outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Six people were killed, and two others were injured.
On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.
Spree is a 2020 American black comedy horror film directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko. The gonzo-style satire follows a social media obsessed rideshare driver played by Joe Keery who, in an attempt to become viral, livestreams himself murdering passengers. The film also stars Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette, Kyle Mooney and Mischa Barton. It was executive-produced by Drake.