Five members of a family were found fatally shot both inside and in front of a Syosset, Long Island, home in an apparent murder-suicide, Nassau County police said Sunday.
Police responding to reports of gunfire around noon found one man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside the suburban residence on Wyoming Court, and four others inside the house, authorities said. A police medic pronounced all five victims dead, and a homicide investigation was launched.
“I live around the corner and it’s crazy,” a neighbor who did not give their name told News12 Long Island. “Nothing like this [has] happened before.”
Police did not release details, but neighbors said the family’s 95-year-old matriarch had recently died and that the family was preparing to sell the house.
Theresa Martha DeLucia had died last Monday and been interred Friday, Newsday reported. A local real estate agent said she had anappointment to meet with the Delucias before family members who had traveled from Florida for the funeral flew back.
“I was meeting them,” Mary Macaluso told Newsday. “The mom had just died, and they were selling the house.”
She had been asked to consult on what needed to be done to prepare the home for listing, she added.
“I heard bang bang bang, several times,” neighbor Yongmei Li, who lives right behind the home, told Newsday. “I thought it was construction.”
With News Wire Services