One day in late July 1941, Einsatzkommando 4a of the Security Police (SiPo) and the Security Service (SD) from the city of Równe arrived in Tuczyn. Using lists of names drawn up by the Ukrainian nationalists, this SD unit arrested 25 Jews (many of whom belonged to the local intelligentsia) as Communists and Soviet activists. Five Ukrainians were also arrested in this operation, on the same charges. All the arrestees were taken to a garden behind the town's leather factory and shot dead.

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One night – apparently, on July 22, 1941 – some Ukrainian nationalists organized a pogrom in Tuczyn. Armed with knives, axes, and nail-studded clubs, they rampaged through the Jewish homes, killing men, women, and children. In the course of this outbreak of violence, some 70 Jews were killed (and many others wounded), and numerous Jewish residences were looted. The next day, the bodies of these Jewish victims were gathered by the town's Jews and buried at the local Jewish cemetery.

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Following the massacre of the Jews in Równe in mid-July 1942, refugees from that city told the Jews of Tuczyn about what had happened. When news arrived that the Germans were digging mass graves near the town, the head of the Judenrat, Getsel Schwartzman, and his deputy, Meir Himelfarb, began to plot an uprising together with local Jewish youths. They planned to set fire to the houses and attack the Germans with any weapons available, to enable the bulk of the ghetto inmates to flee into the nearby forests. When the Jews gathered to pray for the last time on Yom Kippur (September 21, 1942), Schwartzman and the other leaders of the resistance revealed their plans to a group of assembled Jews. On the evening of September 23, the ghetto was surrounded by the German Gendarmerie and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police from Tuczyn (under the command of Ivan Stadnik) and from some other counties. On the following day, an SD unit from Równe arrived in the town, and the Germans and Ukrainian policemen entered the ghetto. They opened the gates, ordering the inmates to leave the ghetto in groups. When the latter offered resistance, the Germans and Ukrainian policemen began to shoot at them. The Jewish fighters returned fire, and the inmates torched the ghetto buildings, including the synagogues that the Germans had been using as warehouses. In the ensuing turmoil, Jews broke through the ghetto fence in several places. According to testimonies, as many as 2,000 Jewish inmates (including a large number of women and children) were able to flee into the nearby Pustomyty Forest. Most of the Jewish fighters stayed behind to keep the Germans occupied, and they either fell in battle or were captured and then shot. In the course of the fighting, two Ukrainian policemen and several Germans were killed or wounded. The Germans and Ukrainian policemen soon launched a manhunt for the Jews who had escaped from the ghetto. Within three days, some 1,000 Jewish fugitives were recaptured, either in hiding or in the Pustomyty Forest, and most of them were killed in the Kotovskiy Grove north of Tuczyn, on the road from Tuczyn to the village of Reczyca. Upon reaching the murder site, the Jews were forced to strip naked and hand over any valuables that they still had with them. They were then driven into the pit in groups of several individuals, ordered to line up inside it, and shot by SD men, who used machine guns. As soon as one group of victims had been shot, another would be forced into the pit, ordered to lie down atop the bodies of their predecessors, and shot in the same manner. According to a testimony, the victims would occasionally be positioned on the lip of the pit with their backs to it, and then shot from behind. According to another testimony, a group of 30 Jews from the neighboring town of Hoszcza were also shot at this site. Richter, the German commandant (senior official) of the Tuczyn Region, was in charge of this shooting action.

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During the liquidation of the Tuczyn Ghetto, some of the inmates were burned or shot dead inside the ghetto by the German squads and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. Their bodies were taken to the Kotovskyi Grove in the northern section of Tuczyn, on the left side of the road from Tuczyn to the village of Reczyca, and buried there.

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Shortly after the partial liquidation of the ghetto on September 24, 1942, Richter, the Landwirte (senior German official of the Tuczyn Region), issued an order requiring all the Jewish fugitives from the ghetto to return to Tuczyn, stating that there would be no more shootings, and promising work and bread. Because of the harsh living conditions in the forest, several hundred Jews, mainly women with children, returned to the town. They were allotted a number of houses, where they lived for several days. Then, one day, these houses were surrounded by Germans and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen, and most of the residents were taken to a ravine near the Jewish cemetery. Upon reaching the shooting site, the Jews were ordered to strip naked. They were forced to enter the pit in groups and lie down, whereupon they were shot. As soon as one group had been killed, the next one would be forced into the pit, ordered to lie down atop the bodies of their predecessors, and shot. According to the ChGK report, 753 Jews were killed at the site. This document also claims that 72 non-Jews, 45 of whom were Soviet activists, were shot there, as well. Richter was in charge of this mass shooting. Ivan Stadnik, chief of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, took part in this murder operation. Subsequently, shootings were carried out at the Jewish cemetery on a daily basis.

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During the second half of 1941, some Soviet activists, Jews and non-Jews alike, were shot in the Tuczyn public park. According to a testimony, during the partial liquidation of the Tuczyn Ghetto on September 24, 1942, some Jews who had been caught by the Ukrainian auxiliary policemen were taken to the town park and shot there. Shortly afterward, the German Landwirte, Richter, issued an order, according to which any Jew who came back to Tuczyn from the Pustomyty Forest would be given accommodation, work, and bread. As a result, several hundred Jews (mainly women and children) returned to the town, and were settled in several houses. A few days later, most of them were taken to the town cemetery to be shot, while one group was shot in the park instead. Subsequently, some other Jews, who had apparently been caught hiding, were also shot in the Tuczyn public park.

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According to a testimony, one day in late September 1942, during the manhunt for the Jews who had escaped from the ghetto, the Pustomyty Forest was surrounded by SD men and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. This operation resulted in the capture of a group of Jews. The Germans forced them to undress and took them to the nearby village of Pustomyty. When the group reached the murder site, the Germans ordered the Ukrainian policemen to dig pits, and the Jewish victims were then shot dead in them.

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