By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Olean, NY – It has been 50 years since a sniper firing from a third floor room at Olean High School took the lives of three people and changed the lives of seven people he wounded.
It was mid-afternoon on Dec. 30, 1974 when Anthony Barbaro, 17, an honor student and member of the high school rifle team, entered the school and made his way to the third floor.
Shortly afterward, Barbaro started a fire on the third floor and shot custodian Earl Metcalf before pulling a fire alarm and barricading himself inside the Student Council room where a window overlooked the front of the school between North Third and North Fourth streets.
Barbaro went on to shoot and kill two other people and injure nine — including several firefighters responding to the fire alarm at the school.
It was one of the first mass shootings at a school in this country.
Besides Metcalf, a passing motorist, Miss Carmen Wright, 25, of Olean, who was six months pregnant at the time, and Neal Pilon, 58, of Olean, a Columbia Gas meter reader, died from the sniper’s gunshots.
A passenger in Wright’s car, Tyler Wright, her brother, was wounded by shrapnel and treated at Olean General Hospital. All victims of the gunfire were from Olean.
Eight firefighters were also injured, including Herbert Elmore, 43, who was shot in the head as he approached the high school in a city fire truck. He was rushed to Buffalo General Hospital for surgery. A bullet also grazed William “Bud” Fromme, 35, in the head. He was treated at Olean General Hospital.
The other six firefighters injured that afternoon who were also treated at Olean General were:
Albert J. Abdo, 37; Joseph Snopkowski, 55; Earl Weidt, 23; George Williams, 36; David Grosse, 28, and Raymond Limerick, 40.
Two other people were treated at St. Francis Hospital: Wayne Dutton, 27, and Larry McCutcheon, no age listed, who was described as a soldier home on leave.
Any time an alarm sounds at a school is concerning, but when firefighters responding to a suspected fire found themselves the targets of gunfire, it turned to chaos.
First responders and civilians alike found themselves under fire. The sniper was in the room for nearly two hours before he was subdued by police with tear gas.
In the meantime, NIcholas DiCerbo, an Olean attorney went to the Armory at North Barry Street and Times Square to see if someone could bring a tank to the school for cover.
At the Armory, DiCerbo met Private Ron DaPolito, quickly explaining the shooting and asked him to get a tank up there.
“I was new to the job,” DaPolito told the Olean Star in a telephone interview on Saturday. “I had only been working for two or three months. I was a private. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to lose my job.”
He tried to contact the staff duty officer in Syracuse, but he was out of the office. DiCerbo emphasized the need to get the tank to the school area quickly.
DaPolito said he then contacted Olean Commander Bill Foss then got hold of a tank crew that included Ron Bailey, John Harris, Bob Pearson and Ron Spears. Harris was the driver, DaPolito said. All the tank crew members have since died.
“There was a lot of turmoil,” DaPolito said. This was Olean. It was surreal.”
DaPolito said his brother-in-law, State Police Sgt. David O’Brien, was on the police team that breached the door of the Student Council room where Barbaro had barricaded himself.
The tank was used to shield police rescuing occupants of a car at North Third and West Sullivan, then to shield Pilon, the gas meter reader, at the corner of West Sullivan and North Fourth Street, who was found dead.
Dapolito, who owns DaPolito Accounting, Tax and Financial Services in Olean, said 50 years later many people are unaware of the sniper and the impact it had in the community. The Barbaro family were neighbors of his, he said.
As many as 100 local and state police had surrounded the school.
Shortly after 5 p.m., two hours into the terror, a six-member team of state police and Olean police were able to breach the room.
State Police Sgt. David O’Brien shot a hole in the door of the Student Council room near the lock and Trooper John Hayes threw a tear gas canister into the room.
Despite wearing a black rubber gas mask, Barbaro was soon overcome by the gas.
Police put handcuffs on him behind his back and strapped him to a stretcher to take him to a waiting ambulance for a ride to the hospital where he was checked out, then taken to the Olean Police Department where he was jailed to await arraignment on three charges of second-degree murder and multiple charges of assault.
Barbaro was indicted by a Cattaraugus County grand jury in January 1975 on three counts of second-degree murder and first-degree reckless endangerment.
One of Barbaro’s defense attorneys said a psychiatrist who examined him in jail said he suffered from schizophrenia.
He wrote several notes on Oct. 31 of that year, the day after opening statements on his murder trial. Barbaro was found hanging in his cell at the county jail about 6 a.m. Nov.1.
His parents later authorized release of a letter addressed to whom it may concern that stated in part:
“It hit me today that whichever way the trial goes, I won’t survive. So I’ve decided to save all concerned some time and pain. I know that for many it is too little, too late, but my life is all I have left to give.
Some will ask WHY? I don’t know — no one will. What has been done can’t be changed. I’m sorry.”
A further excerpt states: “I regret the pain I will cause my family and friends. I regret the day the force took me — and the pain, suffering and destruction that resulted.”
Barbaro added in the letter: “This is one of the things I wanted all along. I guess I just wanted to kill the person I hate the most — myself.”
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According to a study by the Center for Homeland Security and Defense, from 1970-2022, there were 2069 shootings in K-12 Schools, resulting in 684 deaths and 1,969 injuries.
In 2024, there were 83 school shootings, resulting in 38 deaths and 116 injuries.
