A man who fatally stabbed four of his family members and injured a fifth attacked two responding officers, according to the New York Police Department. One of the cops, however, managed to take out a gun and fatally shoot him, authorities said.
Investigators in a press conference on Sunday identified the suspect as Courtney Gordon.
Courtney Gordon stabbed five people, killing four, before he attacked two responding officers, according to the New York Police Department (Screenshot of police vehicles: WABC; image of knife: NYPD)
Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey and Chief of Detectives Joe Kenney told reporters that the incident happened Sunday.
At about 5:10 a.m. the 101st Precinct in the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens received a 911 call in which a “young female caller” said her cousin was killing her family members.
Two officers, a 28-year veteran and 16-year veteran, responded in a marked vehicle to East 22nd Street. They pulled up the driveway to four or five homes set together from the rest of the residential block.
There, they encountered Gordon, who was carrying luggage out the incident home, police said. The officers asked him a question or two in an encounter lasting 10 seconds. Officers claim Gordon initially nodded, but then pulled out a knife, stabbed one of the officers in the neck and struck the other in the head. The 28-year veteran managed to shot him fatally, the NYPD said.
Maddrey said that both officers are going to be alright, but officers found tragedy at the home. First responders found an 11-year-old girl fatally stabbed in front of the residence. They could not enter because of a fire in the foyer, offices said. The city fire department put it out. Inside, investigators found four more victims. A 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman, and a man in his 30s were each fatally stabbed in back bedrooms. The sole survivor is a 61-year-old woman now receiving hospital treatment.
Police did not name the victims, citing the need to perform some notifications. Officers said they recovered the weapon — “a typical kitchen steak knife” — used in the attack on the officers, but they still have to determine if Gordon used it on his family.
Officers did not suggest a motive in the crime. Gordon had a prior arrest for domestic violence strangulation in the Bronx. It seems that in Sunday’s incident, he was visiting family at the Brooklyn home, Kenney said.
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