1977 New Rochelle shooting
On February 14, 1977, a suspended worker of the Neptune Worldwide Moving Company entered the office and warehouse complex and opened fire, killing six people and injuring four others before killing himself in a 10-hour long siege. Five people were pronounced dead at the scene, while an injured victim died six weeks after the shooting.
Background
The Neptune Worldwide Moving Company was created in 1898 and grew rapidly.Shooting
Cowan dressed up in an army jacket, a khaki shirt and khaki slacks. He arrived with at 7:45a.m. and took several fully loaded weapons and ammunition out of the trunk of his red 1971 Pontiac GTO Coupe. He then walked in looking for his supervisor Norman Bing who previously had him suspended from work. Cowan than fatally shot the first three people he encountered. He then moved to the second floor and killed another person. The first officer arrived at the scene within ten minutes of the first shot being fired but was killed by Cowan upon arrival. Cowan also shot and wounded three other officers that arrived and two civilians on the street out of a second-floor window.By noon, Cowan was surrounded by 300 officers and two police helicopters. He reportedly called the New Rochelle Police headquarters at 12:30 and asked for a potato salad and cocoa. He also apologized for the shooting. He shot himself approximately two hours later at 2:23p.m. with one of the pistols. Police, unsure whether he had any hostages, waited until dusk to enter the building and later at night to remove the shooters body due to the possibility of him having hand grenades after he reportedly told the police on another phone call that he had plenty grenades and enough guns and ammunition to last him a whole day. The police later confirmed he had no hostages or hand grenades. They found multiple employees still hiding from the gunman by night time.