SOUTHINGTON, Conn. — Police have arrested a 74-year-old man who they say is connected to more than half a dozen shootings across multiple towns. On Monday we learned new information from Southington Police in what is a bizarre story.
Police are trying to piece together what motivated 74-year-old Douglas Floyd Gollnick to go on an alleged shooting spree. Police saying it was a minor miracle that no one was hurt.
In all, dozens of shots were fired. Lt. Keith Egan of the Southington Police Department said, “That’s probably the best news that we can report. That all of those shots were fired and nobody was injured.”
Southington Police say, Gollnick, who lives on Grove Street in the Plantsville section of Southington, shot up six locations with a long rifle over the course of a several-hour shooting spree Sunday evening.
There was no answer at his multi-family home, but FOX61 caught up with a neighbor, Nicholas Augelli who said, “He seemed pretty nice. He would always wave when I was outside doing yard work.”
Augelli’s step-father fixes cars at his shop on the Meriden Waterbury Turnpike. He was one of the people Gollnick allegedly targeted. Gollnick offloaded more than a dozen .22 caliber rounds.
“He just worked on his car a few weeks ago and he was one of the shops that got shot up,” said Augelli.
Police say all six shooting locations, which included four occupied residences, a doctor's office, and an empty church, were all targeted.
“For the comfort of anybody who is in town just to understand that he wasn’t just randomly picking people,” explained Lt. Egan.
On this day, Southington Police were processing evidence at two newly identified shooting locations. School Street, where bullet holes cluster around the second-floor utility connection of a home. They were photographed for evidence from a fire department bucket truck.
On Flanders Road, 16 shots were fired into a residential garage. “He heard a loud noise. He went outside to investigate what was going on and saw the black pickup truck parked out there,” recalled Lt. Egan about the homeowner.
Police were only able to arrest Gollnick after identifying his black Chevy Silverado at the Hartford Healthcare medical office building where he fired shots.
A chase ensued, police eventually deployed spike strips to blow Gollnick’s tires and he crashed on the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown.
It’s still unclear if Gollnick has a past criminal record. Police are also investigating his connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to see if any hate crime charges are warranted.
Police say Gollnick may also be a suspect in a church shooting in Cromwell and a shooting in Bristol. He’s facing a slew of criminal charges.
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