The quiet streets of the Bronx were shattered by a grim discovery on Wednesday night, as police investigated a scene that bore the tragic markers of a double murder-suicide. At approximately 8 p.m., officers were called to 613 Southern Blvd. in the Longwood section, where they encountered a harrowing tableau: three individuals, lifeless, each bearing the fatal signature of gun violence. According to CBS News, a 57-year-old woman had been shot in the head, alongside a 57-year-old man who was shot multiple times.
Outside the residence, the body of a 34-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to the head and torso. The gun, a silent witness beside him. This man, as ABC7 New York reported, is believed to have been the perpetrator of the deaths inside, before inflicting his own fatal injury. Investigators are also probing a sinister twist: the possibility that the assailant attempted to mask his grim deed with gas, an act interrupted by the FDNY's swift response to a leak at the scene.
Residents of the Longwood neighborhood, where the trio had lived for some 15 years, were left grappling with the shock of violence erupting in their midst. One neighbor, Karla Toledo, recounted the immediate aftermath to CBS News, detailing the scramble to aid the wounded and the disbelief that hung thick as the sirens wailed. "Everybody is just shocked because, like I said, since they're a very quiet family, to hear something of this magnitude to happen from them is very unexpected, very shocking," Toledo said.
"Con Edison gas emergency crews arrived to the location at 8:49 last night after receiving a call from the FDNY with concerns about a possible gas issue," Con Edison stated, as reported by ABC7 New York. Upon arrival, they found that FDNY had already stopped the gas flow to the three-family home, as a precaution, the normal routine disrupted by tragedy. Earlier, a worker at a deli across the street from the crime scene noted one of the family members had come in to buy a Lotto ticket just half an hour before the shootings, with no hint of the darkness to come.
The New York Police Department continues its investigation into the incident, while the names of the deceased have been withheld pending notification of their kin. With residents shaken and the Longwood community searching for answers, the Bronx weeps for the senseless loss, a narrative interrupted by violence that, likely, will never be fully understood.
