Irondequoit Supervisor Dave Seeley says excellent work by Irondequoit Police averted a possible tragedy this week after they arrested Necati Harsit in the parking lot of his restaurant with three loaded guns.
At a news conference, police said the 54-year-old Turkish-American apparently wanted to kill former City Court Judge Roy King, State Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Fisher, an unknown member of the district attorney’s office and four other people.
Chief Richard Tantalo says Harsit apparently holds a grudge against Judge King over a 2002 case involving his family and a property dispute. He was accused of threatening to kill the judge back then and reportedly spent time in a psychiatric hospital.
Harsit was arrested after a bank employee became concerned. The Turkish-speaking employee often helped Harsit with his banking, but on Monday that teller heard Harsit mumbling in Turkish about going on a massacre. Bank employees watched Harsit take three pistols out of his safety deposit box, loading one of them before putting them into a cooler.
He’s being held on $1 million bail.