Report on a shooting spree and hostage standoff in Rochester, NY by William Griffin.
Reporter: Walker, James (ABC News)
GUNMAN AND 3 KILLED IN ROCHESTER
AP
June 18, 1981
A gunman firing at random killed three persons - including his mother - wounded seven and held several employees hostage in a bank for two hours today before the police shot him to death, authorities said.
The shootings, which began at 11:30 A.M., went on for three hours before a police marksman killed the gunman as he tried to stop a hostage from leaving the Security Trust Company on the city's west side. The assailant was identified as William Bernard Griffin, 37 years old, of Rochester, and the slain bank employee as Margaret Moore, 29, of Rochester.
A police spokesman said the incident began when Mr. Griffin walked into the home of his mother and stepfather and opened fire with a shotgun, killing his mother and a hired wallpaper hanger and wounding his stepfather.
The police identifed the mother as Gracy Griffin Anderson, 66, and the paper hanger as Thomas Cariola, 67, of nearby Greece, N.Y. Outside the house, Mr. Griffin shot a workman, then wounded at least two more bystanders as he ran up the street toward the bank, authorities said.
''He was walking fast with a rifle over his shoulder,'' said Scott Daitz, 27, of Greece, N.Y., who was delivering potato chips to a bar across the street from the bank.
Mr. Daitz said the gunman had entered the bank and then ''a whole bunch of people came running out of the bank in all directions - just scattering.''
Mr. Daitz's partner, Billy Winkler, ran across the street ''to help get them out of there,'' Mr. Daitz said, but then a motorcycle policeman came up and ''a shower of shots began.''
Up to eight people were believed trapped inside the bank after the gunman entered, the police said. The police said at least two officers had been wounded as Mr. Griffin exchanged gunfire with the police before a special-weapons team was called in just after noon. The police used a garbage truck to shield one officer as he was rescued at the scene.
Norm Palermo, who was working in a building two doors down from the bank, said: ''Everybody thought it was a bank robbery until the bullets started flying. Cars were just abandoned. People were stopping and running.''
Kay Lowry, a reporter, and Charlie Planert, a camerman, of WROC-TV said they had heard bullets pass over their heads as they stood with other reporters nearby. The bullets struck a building behind them and fell at their feet.
Mr. Daitz said he had stayed behind his truck for about an hour, then ''felt wind go by my pants like an airgun.'' ''I looked down,'' he said, ''and there was a hole in my pants. After that, I ran.'' After the hostages had been inside the bank about two hours, two employees escaped out a door, followed by a third -Margaret Moore - who was shot and fatally wounded by the gunman, according to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's office.
Authorities said it was then that the gunman came into their line of fire and they shot him. At St. Mary's Hospital, two of the wounded were in critical condition after surgery. Officer Ronald Baker, 32, had a chest wound, as did Curtis Dandridge, 67. Both live in Rochester.
Angela Harvey, 18, of Rochester, was in satisfactory condition with a gunshot wound of the face. Robert Hudson, 69, of Spencerport, another policeman, was in satisfactory condition with a wound of the right hand. The hospital said he would be released late today.
At Strong Memorial Hospital, James Corcoran, 56, was being treated for a shoulder wound, and Amos Anderson, 53, the gunman's stepfather, for an abdominal wound. Both are from Rochester.
Officials at Highland Hospital said that John Beers, 20, of Rochester, had been treated for a gunshot wound and released.
Rochester Gunman Kills 3, Wounds 7
A Vietnam veteran who pleaded with police to execute him killed three people, including his mother, and wounded seven others yesterday in a three-hour shooting rampage.
Police identified the gunman as William Griffin, 37, of Rochester, and said he forced the bank manager to call police agencies and read an "irrational" typewritten note he had carried into the bank.
Police Chief Delmar Leach said the note, read at 1:30 p.m., promised a hostage would be killed within 30 minutes if police had not "executed" Griffin.
At 2 p.m., he fired two shotgun shells into the back of bank teller Margaret Moore, 30. An officer, poised in the window of a church across the street, then fired a single shot that struck Griffin in the head and killed him.
Leach said Griffin had no criminal record in Rochester. Neighbors said he was a Vietnam veteran "never quite the same" since his return.
Details of Griffin's letter were sketchy, but Leach said it was "irrational," with a reference to his "Social Security being taken away."
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