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Hero officer in AT&T shooting to be honored for his actions

By BY JOLEEN FERRIS

Story Created: Jun 1, 2010 at 12:34 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jun 1, 2010 at 4:20 PM EDT

NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. (WKTV) - As the victim of Thursday's shooting at AT&T in New York Mills improves, plans are in the works for both the city of Rome and AT&T to honor the young Rome Police Officer who killed the suspect, preventing the tragedy from becoming massacre.

79-year-old Abraham Dickan entered the store on Thursday and shot employee Seth Turk, age 37. Turk has since been upgraded from critical to serious condition. Police say Dickan was carrying a note which stated his intention to kill six employees-- five of whom were in the store that day. After Dickan shot Turk, Officer Moore shot and killed Dickan with his person weapon.

An AT&T executive from Buffalo has traveled to central New York to meet with Rome Mayor James Brown and Public Safety Commissioner James Masucci.

"And they're interested in meeting Officer Moore, they want to thank him they would like him to meet with the employees if he will, from AT&T. I spoke to Officer Moore this morning on the phone and that's going to be a good possibility . He's been going to the hospital and visiting the victim, Seth Turk, ..." says Masucci, who added that the 25-year-old officer has been asking about suspect Abraham Dickan's family as well.

Both the city of Rome and AT&T want to formally recognize the young officer, but Masucci says they're going to wait a bit because of the gravity of the situation; the fact that, yes, the officer prevented a tragedy from becoming much worse, but that he had to take a life in order to do that.

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