The West Orange gunman killed after slaying a child and wounding three other persons Saturday had not displayed emotional problems in recent years, several acquaintances said yesterday.

However, authorities investigating the deadly rampage of George Proctor on Watchung Avenue noted that the 60-year-old man had been treated for manic depressive psychosis at a Georgia mental hospital in the 1950s.

West Orange Police Chief Edward M. Palardy said Proctor, a Union County College maintenance worker, did not inform New Jersey officials of his mental health history when he successfully applied for a State Police firearm identification card in 1970.

The three young victims were not involved in the rock-throwing incident and were apparent random victims when the man "went berserk," police said. "The identification card entitles the bearer to purchase ammunition, rifles and shotguns, but not handguns," according to Detective Sgt. James Drylie of the West Orange Police Department. Proctor used a handgun an ungregistered .32-caliber revolver, to kill Ivory Smith, 9, and critically injure Joshua Valese, 12, and Kareem Davis, 8, all of Watchung Avenue. He also fired a number of shots at Orange Police Officer Thomas Smith, 25, and one bullet grazed the officer's forehead.

Proctor, known in the neighborhood as "Mr. George" and described as a hunder and fisherman, was pronounced dead at 4:10 p.m. in East Orange General Hospital, assistant nursing supervisor Margaret Francois said. Drylie said Proctor apparently became enraged after some teenagers pelted his "prized" 1983 Cadillac with rocks as he drove by Alden and High streets in Orange, a few blocks from his Watchung Avenue apartment. Thee injured officer, identified as Patrolman Thomas Smith, 26, of the Orange Police Department, was listed in stable condition last night in The Hospital Center at Orange. A bullet grazed his forehead, police said.

Proctor drove home, went into his second-floor residence, came out with a silverplated handgun and began threatening people he met. he randomly shot the three children in the head and fired on Smith when he arrived at the shooting scene in a patrol car.

Returning the fire with his 9mm service weapon, Smith shot Proctor once in the chest and then several more times as the gunman continued to move toward him with his revolver raised. condition in a closed waiting room at the hospital. The grandmother, aunt and uncle of young shooting victim Ivory Smith kept a vigil at the hospital, while they awaited the arrival of the girl's parents, who were in Atlantic City when their daughter was shot.

Funeral services for Ivory Smith, a fourth-grader at the Washington Street School in West Orange, will be held 10 a.m tomorrow at the Woody Home for Services on Oakwood Avenue in neighboring Orange.ers of the families who are obviously very affected by this," Arnold said. "The concern of the institution is no just to treat the victims, but to treat their families.

Valese, a seventh-grader at Edison Junior High School in West Orange, remained in critical but stable condition yesterday in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Children's Hospital of New Jersey in Newark. Deboran Rizzi, a hospital spokeswoman, said the boy, who lost vision in one eye, was "alert and talking to his parents." The director said the argument began after the youths threw rocks at the man's car about two blocks from his apartment. He said Proctor's 1983 Cadilac received minor damage. Kareem Davis, a second-grader also at Washington Street School, remained in critical condition, unconscious and on a respirator at University Hospital in Newark. Doris Ortiz, a hospital spokeswoman, said the younger was in the neuro intensive care unit.

Officer Smith, who was released from the Hospital Center at Orange on Sunday, is on sick leave, according to Police Director Charles Cobbertt.p With You.” "It was clearly a situation where, because of stress and pressure, George crossed over that thin line between sanity and insanity," said the Rev. Leonidas B. Young, Proctor's pastor at the New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange.

Since Proctor joined the church six years ago, Young said, "he has never exhimited, in the congregation setting, any signs of mental disorder."

"He was compassionate, committed and he was the kind of individual who you would trust your children with," Young continued.

"From the pieces I've been able to piece together, the illness of his mother (confined to a nursing home), the death of his sister and his constant aggravation from the young men in the neighborhood who were taunting him led to his complete breakdown," said the minister.

"George would never have harmed any of the victims had he been of sound mind," Young maintained. "I'm totally convinced that he didn't even know who he was shooting."

The pastor concluded, "Our concern, as a congregation, is for his family and even more so for the families of the other victims who were involved."

Proctor's family and friends yesterday echoed Young's remarks. They said it was Proctor's grief over the unexpected death of his sister, Rochell Williams, that caused the outburst of violence. They said he had been in Atlanta this month to attend her funeral.

"Since he got back, he's been grieving," said Jacqueline Smith, Proctor's fiancee, with whom he lived on Watchung Avenue. "When he was attacked by the boys, it just set him off. I don't think at that moment htat he really saw the children, but something else."

Proctor's daugher, Gayle Proctor Howard, said "We're sorry for the family of the children - for everyone. That was not him. He was not a violent man. He loved people."

Family members declined to discuss the reports that Proctor had been hospitalized for mental illness. Smith said in the six years she had known him, Proctor had never exhibited signs of mental instability.

Proctor was born in Springvale, Ga., and lived in West Orange for nearly 30 years, family members said. They said Proctor was a member of the men's choir at New Hope Baptist.

Charles Jenkins, a friend of the family, described Proctor as a religious man. "He got me involved in the church," Jenkins said. "It was his invitation and counseling that brought me to the church."

Jenkins, retired director of campus police at Kean College in Union, said he frequently hunted and fished with Proctor.

According to Police Chief Palardy, Rell and Ralph Proctor, brothers of the gunman who live in Somerset and New York, respectively, told police their mother, Lillian, plaved George in the Central State Hospital in Miledgeville, Ga., nearly 28 years ago.

When West Orange police checked with officials there, a state mental hospital spokesperson, "indicated that a George Proctor, age 22 at the time (and a resident of Atlanta), was admitted on Aug. 10, 1951, and discharged on July 20, 1960," for treatment of manic-depressive psychosis.

Yesterday at Union County College in Cranford where Proctor had worked since 1984, co-workers could offer no explanation for the violent outburst.

"I know he was a nice man and a good worker," said Charles Comegys, who had spoken with Proctor Friday evening. "God knows, I don't knwo why he did this." Before Proctor went to work at the college, he was employed for about 18 years at what was then the Westinghouse Electric plant in Kearny.

Relatives said Proctor worked at the college briefly during a strikek at the Westinghouse plant. When the plant closed in 1984, he took a permanent job at the college, they said.

Acting College President Roy Smith said there had been no incident on the job indicating that Proctor was unstable.

"I always thought he was a good worker and a cooperative guy. There wasn't a single thing in his file," Smith said. "He was just one of those guys that came to work every day and id his job. We never had any problems with the guy whatsoever."

Nicholas Brandt, a maintenance foreman at the college, said Proctor "was a hard-working man. I can't say anything bad about him."

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“Reach Back with One Hand and Pull Someone Else Up With You.”

– Charles C. Cobbertt

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