Daily News from New York, New York • 119

000 Tl Ja By JOHN MAWZULU and CORKY SIEMASZKO Daily News Staff Writers A one-man murder machine, who left a trail of seven corpses from Atlantic City to Harlem, was killed yesterday in a ferocious gun battle with New Jersey cops. Vis iF C' "1 Collins, whose father was killed while serving in Vietnam, lived with his mother in Atlantic City. He was paroled Jan. 11, 1994, after serving half of a 20-year sentence for a robbery and weapons conviction in Atlantic County, N.J. Collins was arrested by New Jersey authorities in August after testing positive for drugs.

But parole officials freed him, and as recently as May 17 Collins came up negative in a test for drug use. Collins' killing spree began at 2.55 p.m. Saturday two days after a judge issued a restraining order barring him from having contact with former girlfriend April Gates, a casino worker, and her mother, said New York City Chief of Detectives Charles Reu-ther. Gates had reported Collins to police for violating the restraining order, which apparently enraged him. Collins went to Gates' Atlantic City home.

When he didn't find her there, he tied up and fatally shot Gates' 51-year-old mother, Shirley Gates, Reu-ther said. Then he drove the dead woman's car three blocks to a house where Gates was partying. As dozens of stunned people watched, Collins shot the 30-year-old woman twice and fled in her car. "This relationship was a big thing to him," said Sgt Daniel Loen of the Atlantic City police. Collins then drove 30 miles to the Star Motel in Monroe Township.

N.J., where he met up with suspected drug dealer William Dawson, 41. of Sick-lerville, N.J.. and Dawson's companion. 27-year-old Stacy-Smith, Reuthersaid. Police did not know if Collins met them to buy drugs, but Collins fatally shot Dawson and critically wounded Smith.

Collins fled in Dawson's car and surfaced the next day in Haddon Township, N.J., where he held up a gas station, pistol-whipped the attendant and fled with $854. Dawson's car was found in Camden, N.J., Monday, when Darnell Collins, an ex-con on parole, was gunned down a day after he executed a parking lot attendant in Chelsea and invaded a nearby office building, where he fatally shot two men in an elevator, investigators said. Collins was brought down by 14 shots about 7 a.m. as he tried to reload his revolver near a waterfall in a normally placid Nutley, N.J., park. Collins' last stand brought an end to a spree of blood and death that began June 17, when Collins fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and her mother.

Five people Collins encountered on his murderous rampage, including a church pastor, lived to tell about it Cops in Newark spotted Collins early yesterday driving the stolen car of a murdered Manhattan livery cabby. He was chased 8 miles north through Newark, Belleville -and Nutley before he crashed the cab into a Nutley home. Collins ran from the wrecked 1980 Oldsmobile and tried to push his way into a neighboring house, exchanging gunfire with cops. Finally, cornered in Kings-land Park, Collins took a "combat stance" and fired with the same long-barreled, 6-shot Smith Wesson revolver that he used to kill seven people, said New York Deputy Inspector Charles Luisi. But cops from three New Jersey towns riddled Collins with lead.

Police recovered the driver's license of his last victim Emmanuel Malan, an immigrant cabby. Late yesterday. Collins' body count increased when 54-year-old David Roth, an architect Collins shot once in the head in the elevator of a Chelsea building, died at St Vincent's Medical Center. Collins, 33, also known as Mwanza Atiba Kamau. had a lengthy rap sheet that included arrests for robbery, assault and burglary.

Six of the seven victims of his latest spree were shot in the head to make sure they died. POLICE AND MEDICS tend to Darnell Collins yesterday after he was gunned down in New Jersey park. MUG SHOT of killer Darnell Collins, 33, who was gunned down in a hail of gunfire in a quiet park in Nutley, N.J., yesterday. Collins, who killed seven and left two others in critical condition -during his crime spree, was also known as Mwanza Atiba Kamau. is WAKMCNAOtOKM NEW JERSEY COP tries to gather his thoughts after shootout.

SEE SHOOT PAGE 30.