A New York girl hid in a cupboard and called 911 after her father allegedly shot her mother and her two sisters dead before turning the gu...
A New York girl hid in a cupboard and called 911 after her father allegedly shot her mother and her two sisters dead before turning the gun on himself during her birthday party in her Brooklyn apartment, it has been revealed.
Joseph McCrimon, 46, allegedly committed the murder-suicide before his 9-year-old girl called 911 around 11.15pm on Monday, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said at a news conference on Tuesday.
'She was just calling 911, you know, if you can imagine, it's horrific, the 911, saying, 'Daddy was coming over for my birthday, and he shot people',' Essig told reporters, according to the New York Post.
'And she was weeping and crying [that she] 'didn't have presents.' It was heartbreaking to hear that. We found her hidden in a closet.'
The two younger victims were the 45-year-old woman's daughters with a different father, police (pictured at the scene on Monday) said
A man shot the mother of his child and two of her daughters dead inside the Van Dyke Houses (pictured) in Brooklyn before turning the gun on himself, police said
The victims were shot shortly after 11pm Monday in an apartment in the Brownsville neighborhood, police said. Officers went to the apartment after a nine-year-old girl called 911 to report a shooting, a police spokesperson said
McCrimon allegedly killed the girl's 45-year-old mother, Rasheeda Barzey.
He also allegedly killed Barzey's two other daughters, Chloe Spears, 16, and Solei Spears, 20, who were not his children.
Police who responded to the scene found the girl hidden in a closet.
Police said that McCrimon and Barzey had a 'very rocky' romantic relationship for 20 years and 'he left in an agitated state to meet her,' The New York Times reported.
Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said he had watched body-camera footage from responding officers.
'It would tear your heart out to see the young girl from that crime,' Shea said, according to the Times.
Shea said a recent spike shootings are leaving many people 'numb' to gun violence, WABC-TV reported.
'I think some are becoming numb to this,' Shea said.
'None of us up here are numb to this. These are real people. I spent this morning watching body camera video of that terrible incident last night in Brooklyn. It would tear your heart out to see the little girl from that crime.'
In an appearance on TV station NY1 on Tuesday, Shea said: 'It's just a terrible situation all around.'
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the incident a 'really troubling and tragic situation.'
'A horrible, horrible situation, and my heart goes out for those who have been lost,' de Blasio said, according to WABC-TV.
Investigators are seen taking evidence out of the apartment building where a 9-year-old girl's father allegedly killer her mother and two sisters before turning the gun on himself
The officers found a 45-year-old woman, a 20-year-old woman and a teenage girl, whose age was not immediately clear, dead from gunshot wounds. Officers at the scene of the shootings on Monday night
The victims were shot shortly after 11pm Monday in an apartment in the Van Dyke Houses in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn before he then turned the gun on himself, police said.
McCrimon was found dead in a nearby walkway area of 563 Mother Gaston Boulevard with a gunshot wound to the head, believed to be self-inflicted. A .38 revolver and a semi-automatic handgun were recovered by police.
Barzey's former brother-in-law, Hasley Derosena, told the New York Post that the girl 'is definitely messed up' after she was left without either parent.
Derosena told the outlet that McCrimon 'had a temper' but 'was not an abusive person.'
'He had a mental illness. He was hospitalized before. He tried to kill himself, but nothing like this,' Derosena said.
Derosena called Barzey 'a good mom' and 'very caring' while noting that he did not know McCrimon had a gun, according to the New York Post.
'If he wanted to kill himself, fine, but why the girls?' Derosena said.
'I knew he would be capable of doing something like this to a guy but not to the girls.'
A neighbor who lives below the family told the outlet that 'it was really bad' when the couple fought.
'Last night, there were no words, no argument. Just 'pop, pop,' and after the first pop, she started wailing. Then there was three more, and there was silence,' the neighbor said.
'Dead silence. I thought, 'Should I call 911?' But, 'No, you're not sure what it was.' Five seconds later, the sirens were coming.'
The neighbor added: 'I'm just so thankful that baby … was in the closet.'
McCrimon lived in Mount Vernon, a city just north of New York, and had a violent criminal history
Police who responded to the scene found the girl hidden in a closet after the murder-suicide
McCrimon was found dead in a nearby walkway area police recovered a .38 revolver and a semi-automatic handgun
The New York Times reported that Barzey was an administrative manager for the city's public hospital system while her oldest daughter, Solei Spears, was a student at Baruch College in Manhattan.
New York Health + Hospitals, which operates city hospitals and other health care facilities, released a statement after Barzey's death and confirmed she was an employee, WABC-TV reported.
'We are deeply saddened by the senseless death of a member of the NYC Health + Hospitals family. In addition to reaching out to relatives, we have activated our Helping Healers Heal team to support those who worked beside this staff member and may need grief counseling,' spokesman Chris Miller said.
McCrimon lived in Mount Vernon, a city just north of New York, and had a violent criminal history.
He been convicted in 1995, when he was then 18 years old, of first-degree manslaughter for an incident on Long Island after he had shot a sanitation worker in the back on Halloween in 1993.
Eugene Grant, Jr., 28, was a married father of five who worked part-time for the sanitation department in Hempstead and had broken up a street fight involving McCrimon's nephew, outlets reported.
McCrimon had claimed that the gun fell from his pocket and went off while the Grant was reaching for it, according to court documents.
State records show that McCrimon was granted a conditional release in September 2000 but he returned to prison in February 2003 for an unspecified violation, The New York Times reported.
McCrimon was released after serving out his sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in August 2003.
He was again sentenced to five years in prison in 2013 after he pleaded guilty to robbing a bank, the Times reported. McCrimon later denied robbing the bank and convinced an appeals court to reduce his sentence by a year.
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