UTICA/ROME -- It certainly wasn't a pleasant occasion, but Mark Piersma from 92.7 The Drive (WXUR) got plenty of face time on Utica and Syracuse TV stations last night and again this morning. He was interviewed by reporters as a neighbor of the man who reportedly shot an employee at an AT&T store in the Utica suburb of New Hartford yesterday.
According to various news reports (WSYR-TV | WSTM/WTVH/WSTQ | WKTV) Piersma lives right next door to the Richardson Avenue home where shooting suspect Abraham Dickan, 79, had lived.
Dickan was fatally shot by an off-duty Rome cop who happened to be in the Commercial Drive AT&T store as Dickan shot one of the store's employees.
Piersma told reporters Dickan, who introduced himself in the neighborhood by the nickname "A," was an "eccentric" man. He told reporters Dickan had a reputation for getting fired up about issues that irked him, but never suspected Dickan would actually go so far as to shoot people.
Piersma, who briefly left WXUR last fall, co-hosts WXUR's "Friday Night Drive" from 7-11pm with Justin Cortese.
On a side note, WXUR Program Director Jack Moran alerts us to some recent weekend schedule lineup changes at 92.7 The Drive:
Moran also points out the new "Sunday Night 6-Pack," where the station plays six albums in a row from start to finish. It starts at 6pm and "usually runs till after 11pm sometime," says Moran.