Gunman in Harlem Store Fire Identified

NEW YORK — The black activist who turned a white-owned Harlem clothing store into a blazing morgue before killing himself was identified Sunday.

Roland Smith, 51, had an arrest record dating back to 1962, said Doram Tamari, a police spokesman who said he did not know how investigators identified Smith.

Two days after he turned Freddy’s Fashion Mart into a fiery grave for seven low-wage workers, investigators still were trying to figure out why Smith, who used the name Abubunde Mulocko, mounted the attack.

Investigators were working with federal authorities to trace the .38-caliber revolver Smith used.

The attack followed weeks of protests and threats to “loot and burn” the store. The pickets outside Freddy’s Fashion Mart, on Harlem’s main commercial strip, were protesting an expansion that meant the eviction of the Record Shack, a black-owned store next door.

Boycott leaders have denied that race played a role in their cause and distanced themselves from Smith, who police said attended at least one demonstration.