By Jennifer Peltz
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A father was suspected of shooting his family in their home Saturday on a quiet New York City block, an attack that spanned three generations and left two women and a girl dead and a second girl badly wounded, according to police and a relative.
Police said they were seeking 34-year-old Jonathon Walker as the suspect in the predawn shootings, which left a 7-year-old dead, a 12-year-old critically injured, and their 31-year-old mother and 62-year-old grandmother dead on a suburban-style street by a park in Queens, near John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“I can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe this happened,” Doreen Warren, the eldest victim’s mother, sobbed by phone later Saturday morning. If her grandson-in-law was responsible, “he didn’t look like he’s a person to do that,” she said.
The girls were his daughters, “two beautiful girls, sweet girls,” and their mother was his girlfriend, Doreen Warren said. The eldest victim, Viola Warren, was the girls’ grandmother mother and worked at the airport, said Doreen Warren. She said they had talked by phone just two days ago and Viola didn’t mention any signs of trouble.
The women had never complained to her about Walker, said the great-grandmother, who recalled him joining in a family gathering this past Christmas. “We had no problem,” she said.
Police were called around 5:40 a.m. Saturday to the two-family home on 148th Avenue, in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens, which property records show Viola co-owns with another relative. Officers found the 7-year-old and the women dead of gunshot wounds to their heads, the New York Police Department said. The 12-year old was taken to a hospital, where she was in critical condition.
Walker fled the home in an SUV and was believed to be carrying a .45-caliber gun, police said.
Doreen Walker, meanwhile, was waking up at her home elsewhere in New York City. She turned on the TV to hear violent news, and then had the shock of realizing it concerned her own family.
“You see these things on television,” she said, “and you never know when they’re going to hit home.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press