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Authorities look to weapon for details leading to AT&T shooting

By By JOLEEN FERRIS

Story Created: Jun 1, 2010 at 5:38 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jun 1, 2010 at 5:42 PM EDT

NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. (WKTV) - Unable to prosecute the deceased gunman from Thursday's AT&T shooting in New York Mills, authorities are targeting the person who put the illegal gun in shooter Abraham Dickan's hands.

Dickan's gun license was revoked, yet he walked into the Commercial Drive AT&T store Thursday and shot employee Seth Turk, 37, with a .357 magnum handgun. Now, New York State Police are looking for the person who put the gun in Dickan's hands. They say they were able to get a serial number from the weapon, and that it will help unlock many details about the gun.

"If, in fact, it was fired at any other crime, we'll be able to determine that," said State Police Captain Fran Coots. "We'll be able to determine who the last registered owner was, we'll be able to find that out through the serial number. There's a great deal of information out there that we can tell from this weapon."

Coots also pointed out that such investigations take a great deal of time. In the February 2006 shooting death of New Hartford Police Officer Joseph Corr, it was nearly two years before police caught up with the man who would admit buying a gun for a person who couldn't legally own one. That person, Michael Flamer, was sentenced to four years in state prison.

Captain Coots also points out the possibility that Dickan stole the gun he used to shoot AT&T employee Turk.

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