A New York man brutally murdered all three of his siblings and his niece after a disagreement about what to do with their late mother’s home.
A sibling meeting turned deadly over the weekend after the five of them met up at their late mother’s Syosset home out on New York’s Long Island to discuss what to do with the property after her death earlier this month. According to the Nassau County Police Department, 59-year-old Joseph DeLucia had lived for his entire life with the siblings’ late mother in the home. Everyone else, including sister Joanne Kearns, 69, brother Frank DeLucia, 64, sister Tina Hammond, 64, and niece Victoria Hammond, 30, was seemingly in agreement over selling the place — besides Joseph.
On Sunday, they were set to meet with a realtor to begin that sale process, but that sadly never happened. NCPD Captain Stephen Fitzpatrick said in a press conference:
“They brought Starbucks and they assembled in the den area. The brother (Joseph) stayed behind.”
While they were awaiting the realtor’s arrival, Joseph apparently “decided that day to get a loaded, Mossberg shotgun, 12 gauge, approached them in the rear area of the house, and from the kitchen, fired 12 shots, striking all four of them multiple times.”
Holy s**t…
The police captain revealed:
“The perception of Joseph Jr. was that he was being cut out of the will and was going to be displaced without a place to go.”
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And because of said “perception,” Joseph allegedly made the decision to remove his siblings and his niece from the equation… and himself, as well. Fitzpatrick added:
“He then took the weapon, went out to the front lawn, was shouting indiscriminately about what happened. A neighbor heard him doing this, called 911, and that was our 911 caller. He then fired a self-inflicted shot to the chest and killed himself.”
That is just so awful.
Fitzpatrick revealed Joseph had “past mental issues, psychological issues that were reported to us that we have not confirmed.” Apparently, in 2022, cops were called to the residence to conduct a welfare check. But at the time, he wasn’t “displaying any signs that he was dangerous to himself or others.” However, a neighbor reportedly told cops in an “unconfirmed” tip that Joseph “made statements in the past that if you hear gunshots, don’t bother calling 911 because it will be too late.”
WTF…
And get this: according to surviving family members via NBC New York, Joseph was NOT even being left out of the will as he reportedly believed. View more details on the tragic situation (below):
This is all just so, so sad. Our hearts go out to the surviving members of the family.
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.
[Images via American Horror Story/Hulu]