NY - Police search for suspect after 4 Dead in shootout at car wash

Police in upstate New York are searching for a suspect after shootings at two different businesses left four people dead and at least two wounded.

State police have identified the suspect as Kurt Myers, 64.

State police tell local media outlets two unidentified people were shot and killed Wednesday morning at a car wash in the village of Herkimer and two others were killed in a barber shop in the village of Mohawk, about 65 miles east of Syracuse.

They say a total of six people were shot.

Herkimer Village police would only say that there was a shooting and a manhunt.

The Observer-Dispatch reported that Myers was last seen wearing a flannel shirt, the site reported.

Myers reportedly used a long gun for the attacks.

Swat teams had converged on a nearby jewelry store, the O-D reported. Mohawk officials reportedly told the paper that they believed Myers was still on foot or had been picked up by a taxi.

Jason Ackler, 39, told the O-D one of his father's best friends was shot at the barber shop.

“I think this guy is trying to prove a point,” he said. “It definitely seems like he knew what he was doing.”

Herkimer County Community College and local schools are on lockdown. The college sent an automated cellphone alert around 10:40 a.m., telling students and staff that there was an "active shooter" in the area. The message identified the gunman as a man in his 60s, with a white beard and driving a red Jeep Cherokee.

A text alert a few minutes later said the campus was on lockdown. Another alert advised people to remain inside buildings until further notice.

Amanda Viscomi, Herkimer's acting clerk-treasurer for the village of 7,700, told The Associated Press the shooting at Gaffey's happened a few blocks from village hall. She said she was told the shooter was at large and that state police, sheriff's deputies and other police were swarming the area.

"Everybody's on lockdown, all the schools, the college, the village," Viscomi said. "It's very, very scary."

The O-D reported that fire crew battled a blaze at the apartment building where Myers lived. Police were seen taking about a dozen firearms from the building. It is unclear if they belonged to Myers.

Herkimer is named for the German immigrant family that settled in the western Mohawk Valley in the 1720s. The economically distressed villages are two miles away from Ilion, where a 2-century-old Remington Arms gun plant is a major employer.