New Hampshire father Muni Savyon, 54, killed his 9-year-old son Joshua during a visit to a YWCA on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. He took out a handgun and shot his son before he turned the gun on himself, witnessed by an supervisor in the room. In the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Sayvon had sent an email to a friend indicating he was suicidal, a rabbi said.

Savyon had shared custody of the boy with his son’s mother after they split years ago, Rabbi Levi Krinsky of Chabad Lubavitch in Manchester said. The spiritual leader added Savyon had felt depressed recently since returning from his brother’s funeral in Israel.

"What would provoke him to take his life and his son's life? I don't think anyone can figure that out," Krinsky told the AP about Savyon, who apparently went to synagogue sporadically. "My heart goes out to the family."

According to law enforcement, Savyon had a combative relationship with Joshua’s mother, who has not been identified, and had previously threatened to kill all three of them. Krinsky said the couple was divorced but authorities claimed the duo was only separated.

The rabbi isn’t the only person shocked by Savyon’s depraved murder-suicide. Another ex-wife, Ellen Savyon Vig, whom he had remained friends with after their 1997 divorce, told the AP he was a kind person who loved his son. "He was nonviolent. He would try to help anyone he could. He was a really nice guy," she said

The supervisor who was in the room when the shots went off escaped unharmed and the YWCA expressed “thoughts and prayers” for friends and families who knew the victims.

Israel