BERSERK KILLER SHOOTS 12, WOUNDS THREE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23044, 7 September 1949, Page 7

BERSERK KILLER SHOOTS 12, WOUNDS THREE

(N.Z.P A.—Renter—Copyright.) (1C.30 a.m.) • NEW YORK, Sept. 6. A 28-year-old ex-serviceman went berserk in Camden, New Jersey, today and killed 12 persons and wounded three others.

The ex-serviceman, Howard Unrah, killed five men, live women and two boys, and wounded a man, a woman and a boy in a few minutes in the quiet residential section of Camden.

Unruh killed people in houses, shops and in the street until police fire forced him lo take cover in a house. Barricading himself in a second - storey room, he exchanged shots with the police until tear-gas bombs forced him to surrender. The police, reconstructing the shooting, said that Unruh. armed with a .45 calibre automatic Lugar pistol, first entered a chemist shop where he killed the proprietor, Maurice Cohen, as he attempted to escape. Unruh then ran upstairs and killed Cohen’s wife and her mother with two shots. Running into the street he killed a man with one shot and then walked over to a motor-car. poked a pistol in the window and fired one shot which, killed a man at the wheel. Next, Unruh walked across the street to a barber's shop, fired two shots and killed the proprietor. Then he ran into a house, shot and wounded a mother and her son. Running back into the street. Unrah fired at all persons in range, killing six and wounding one with 10 shots. Police cars raced up the street firing at Unruh who ran into a house and barricaded himself on the second fioor. The police riddled .the room with bullets and then threw 25 tear-gas bombs through a window. Unruh returned the police fire for a few minutes and then staggered from the room calling: ‘‘l give up. Don’t shoot.” Stumbling downstairs, he fell into the arms of the police. Unruh saw three years’ service with the American Army in Europe. He was described by neighbours as “very religious, even to the point of being a fanatic.” He always carried a Bible. The police had to resist an angry mob of about 1000 who wanted to lynch Unruh.