Family massacre in New York: Suicide bomber was furious over sale of his mother's house

A man killed four members of his family and then himself because he was upset at being forced to move out of his late mother’s home on Long Island, New York, according to Nassau County police.

Joseph DeLucia Jr. and his family had gathered shortly before noon Sunday at his mother’s home in Syosset, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Manhattan (NYC), just three days after burying the matriarch. In the midst of the gathering, the 59-year-old suspect fatally shot four relatives and then himself, according to police.

The other victims were Joanne Kearns (69), a resident of Tampa, Florida; Frank DeLucia (64) of Durham, North Carolina; and Tina Hammond (64) and her daughter Victoria Hammond (30), both of East Patchogue, Long Island (NY).

The suspected suicide bomber lived in the house, which was planned for sale. On Sunday, he fired 12 bullets from a shotgun, killing his three siblings and a niece, leaving “one of the most horrific scenes I have ever seen,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick J. Ryder was quoted as saying. The New York Times.

He then walked onto the front lawn of the cul-de-sac, screamed about what he had just done and shot himself, according to Nassau County Sheriff’s Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick. DeLucia had been assured by his family that they would support him after his mother’s death, but was told he would have to move somewhere else, according to authorities.

Using so-called “red flag” laws, local police could have prevented DeLucia from obtaining a firearm if they had known he was dealing with mental health issues, Commissioner Ryder said yesterday.

But although DeLucia Jr. seemed “sad and confused” in recent days, there were no obvious warning signs that he would become violent, he told Associated Press Randy Marquis, a neighbor who has lived across the street from the family’s home for about a decade.

DeLucia Jr. worked as an auto mechanic and was also a hoarder, so the house was filled with tools and other repair items, Fitzpatrick added.

Domestic violence is a constant in New York City and surrounding areas, between relatives, roommates and partners, even with victims who are minors. Every day in NYC, an average of 747 incidents of domestic violence are reported – including assault, abuse, verbal abuse – and about 65 homicides annually.

Last week, a four-year-old girl was stabbed multiple times in her home in New Jersey and her aunt was arrested as a suspect. Earlier, a couple planning to marry died in Staten Island (NYC) in an apparent murder-suicide amid a string of family tragedies; and a 26-year-old man was arrested for shooting his twin sister to death in a home in New Jersey.

Also this month, a 31-year-old man admitted to police that he stabbed his elderly father to death at their home in Ridgefield, a quiet Connecticut town that had not had a homicide for more than two decades, in 2003. And a father in New Jersey was convicted of killing his 6-year-old son by abusing him because “the boy was fat,” according to prosecutors.

In late July, a grandmother killed her granddaughter’s mother and then shot herself in the midst of a custody battle over the child, right on the street next to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York, in an elegant area of ​​the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Also in July, four people – including two small children – were found stabbed to death in an apartment in Brooklyn (NYC) and a relative was arrested for the crime. In April, a Hispanic man was accused of brutally killing his girlfriend in Harlem (NYC). It was later revealed that he had been deported for drug trafficking in 2002, but returned to the country, according to prosecutors.

In February, a 43-year-old Hispanic grandmother was shot dead by her partner, who then committed suicide in the victim’s apartment in Brooklyn (NYC). Days later, a man was accused of killing his sister by hitting her several times with a frying pan while she was sitting next to her father in a home in Erwin, New York.

In January, a man was arrested one day after his mother’s funeral on suspicion of having strangled her in her home in Staten Island (NYC). Also that month, a woman was sentenced for the death of her twin babies in Long Island (NY). Days earlier, a Hispanic woman killed her daughters and her husband and then took her own life inside her home in Union (NJ) after receiving an eviction order, authorities reported.

If you are a victim or suspect that someone is being abused, especially if you are a minor or an elderly person:

Seek help

• Call 911, 988 or (800)-942-6906.
• Text “WELL” to 65173.
• Check information at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/es/ and www.988lineadevida.org