Herkimer, N.Y. --- The takedown of gunman Kurt Myers, 64, early Thursday morning marked the end to a shooting spree that terrorized two small villages in the Mohawk Valley.
Around 8 a.m. police stormed the vacant building on N. Main Street in Herkimer and Myers fired on officers. Myers shot and killed an FBI K9 dog moments before police shot and killed him.
"The work by the tactical teams, the FBI team and the New York State Police team, was nothing short of heroic,” said State Police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico. “They did an unbelievable job engaging the gunman in the location, we're happy that there were no additional injuries or deaths other than the K9. Our heart goes out to the handler for the K9 and the K9 because as you know we consider them a part of law enforcement so we do feel the loss.”
An FBI spokeswoman informed 13WHAM News that the two year-old Czech German Shepherd was named “Ape” and after months of training he began duty with the FBI last month.
“Ape was doing what he was trained to do and made the ultimate sacrifice for his team,” FBI Special Agent Ann Todd wrote in a statement. “His actions were heroic and prevented his teammates from being seriously wounded or killed.”
The decision to move in on Myers was made after many other tactics were exhausted. Police surveyed the vacant building, the site of an old bar, with robots and other devices. Myers also made no attempt to communicate with police during the standoff.
“We deployed gas (on Wednesday) a couple times and he was in a very small room on the first floor and it was possible he was able to shield himself against the gas,” said Superintendent D’Amico.
On Wednesday around 9:30 a.m. Myers set fire to his own apartment in the Village of Mohawk and minutes later he walked into a barbershop around the corner. He reportedly asked if anyone recognized him and then opened fire shooting four men and killing two of them. Barely five minutes later Myers was a mile away in the Village of Herkimer where he shot and killed two customers of a gas station.
