In a story ripped straight from a nightmare, police say a New York City father went on a murderous rampage early Saturday, killing his 7-year-old daughter, along with his girlfriend and her 62-year-old mother, before turning a gun on himself, according to the New York Post. His 12-year-old daughter clings to life with a gunshot wound to the head, the report says.
The incident began at 5:38 a.m. Saturday shortly after the suspect, Jonathon Walker, 34, arrived at his home in the Springfield Gardens section of Queens and reportedly began shooting as he marched from room to room. He allegedly put a bullet in the head of his girlfriend of 10 years, Shantai Hale, 31; Hale’s mother, Viola Warren, 62; and Kayla Walker, his 7-year-old daughter with Hale, police say. He also allegedly shot his 12-year-old daughter, Christina Walker, in the head, the report says.
The father then fled the bloody scene and called a brother in Las Vegas about 20 minutes later, saying, “What I did, I cannot come back from,” police say, according to the Post.
Meanwhile, Christina called 911, waited for police and spoke to them for about 15 minutes before she was taken to the hospital, sources told the New York Post. She was listed in critical condition at Long Island Jewish Medical Center late Saturday, the report says.
The Post says police discovered the body of the 6-foot-5, 260-pound nightclub bouncer and security guard in his car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a few miles away in a wooded area behind John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Police say it’s unclear what prompted the rampage.
Walker, a Buffalo, N.Y., native who played pro basketball in Portugal from 2008 to 2009, told a friend he was “going home to watch Netflix with the family,” City Councilman Donovan Richards told the Post. But no one knows anything beyond that.
“Nobody knows why,” Wendell Warren, Viola Warren’s brother, told the Post. “We will be baffled for years.”
Read more at the New York Post.