Four family members, including two children, were stabbed to death at a home in Queens early Sunday morning, the police said. The suspect also started a fire at the house and then stabbed two police officers who arrived at the scene before being shot dead by one of them, according to New York Police Department officials.
At about 5:10 a.m. the police received an emergency call from a young woman who said that her cousin was killing her family members, the chief of department, Jeffrey Maddrey, said at a news conference on Sunday morning.
Two officers who responded to the location, 467 Beach 22nd Street in the Far Rockaway neighborhood, saw a man leaving with luggage, Chief Maddrey said. When they stopped him, the man stabbed one officer in the head and the other in the neck with a steak knife before one of the officers shot him.
The suspect was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The wounds of the officers were not life threatening, Chief Maddrey said at the news conference, which was in front of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where they were being treated.
As other officers arrived, they found an 11-year-old girl lying in front of the house, and she was pronounced dead, Chief Maddrey said. The house had been set on fire, and the officers could enter the home only after firefighters had extinguished the fire. They found three more victims inside two bedrooms at the back of the home: a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman, and a man in his 30s, all of whom they believed had been stabbed to death, he said.
Officers also found a 61-year-old woman, who had multiple stab wounds and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
It was unclear whether the same knife had been used for all the victims.
Joseph Kenny, the department’s chief of detectives, identified the suspect as Courtney Gordon, 38, whom the police believe was a resident of the Bronx and was visiting family members in Queens.
The police said on Sunday that the motive of the attack was under investigation and that the 9-1-1 caller was being questioned.