A 23-year-old Poughkeepsie resident was killed in Israel by security forces yesterday after opening fire and killing his old boss in a hotel a day after being fired, officials said.
William Herskowitz — whom cops described as “nervous” in the days leading up to the tragedy — allegedly stole a security guard’s gun at the hotel in Eilat where he had been working for only two weeks.
He fired rounds on his way to the kitchen, where he fatally shot his former boss, Armando Abed, 33.
“[Herskowitz] came with a mission,” said David Bitan, deputy chief of the south region of the Israeli police, adding that the New Yorker blamed Abed for being fired.
“[Herskowitz first] attacked an officer from the back. There was chaos,” said Bitan. “Other security officers from the hotel came to help, but it was too late … he already took [the security officer’s] weapon.”
“The security officer fell on the ground,” said witness Nisim Ruby. “I came over there and tried to help and released the security officer from [Herskowitz’s] grip.”
But Herskowitz got the weapon and dashed into the dining room, firing a few times and scattering customers as he went, cops said.
In the kitchen, he shot Abed in the head four times at point-blank range, cops said.
Anti-terrorism police responded and tried for an hour to coax Herskowitz out of the kitchen, cops said.
But he began shooting at them, and they returned fire and killed him.
Security footage showed that Herskowitz ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant immediately before grabbing the security guard’s gun, Israeli media reported.
Herskowitz had been in Israel since Aug. 27 on a Jewish work program called Israel Way, a spokesman for the program said.
He was supposed to be in Israel for five months with a group of 80 travelers, during which time he would travel around the country and learn Hebrew.
“The HR manager of the hotel received several complaints [about Herskowitz] and they decided that he would leave the hotel, and would leave the project,” said program spokesman Yuval Arad.
Herskowitz was supposed to return to the United States on Tuesday, he said.
Arad did not say what types of complaints were lodged, but Herskowitz’s roommate told cops that the troubled man would wake up in the middle of the night and punch walls, police said.
A Scarsdale relative reached by phone declined to comment.
A grieving chorus of weeping women could be heard in the background.
Herskowitz’s mother was crying outside her Poughkeepsie house yesterday afternoon, neighbors said.
Her son attended SUNY New Paltz, where he majored in visual and performing arts, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at a nearby pizzeria, neighbors said.
Herskowitz was kind and enjoyed skateboarding, pottery and playing guitar, shocked neighbors said.
“He would play with the kids in the neighborhood, go skateboarding with them and play basketball and video games,” said Kathleen Orr, 38. “He was a regular kid, but he was also very talented. He walked around or rode on a skateboard with a guitar slung on his back. My kids always thought he was so cool. He’d take kids up to the park and play guitar and sing songs for them. He had ambition and it seemed liked he really loved life.”
“I last saw him riding on his skateboard two or three weeks ago. He said that he was going to Israel very soon and that once he was settled down he would take his mom with him and they’d stay there,” said Brendon Jordan, 19, a good friend of Herskowitz’s.
Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick