New York Man Kills 12-Year-Old Daughter, Wife, Himself In Suspected Double Murder-Suicide

In a suspected case of double murder-suicide, a man killed his wife, 12-year-old daughter and himself at their home in Mount Vermont, New York, on Sunday.

Mount Vermont Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard took Twitter to share the news.

“Mount Vernon has experienced a heartbreaking tragedy this morning. We are investigating a probable murder-suicide in which a man killed his wife and daughter and took his own life. This investigation is still in the early stages. Our prayers are with the family during this time,” she wrote.

On her weekly program "Sundays With Shawyn,” the mayor said the father was “under major duress.” She added that the man was stressed over personal issues and that there were no reports of domestic violence.

“This has definitely sent our community reeling,” she said. The city officials were notifying the relatives about the incident. The identities of the shooter, his wife and child were not revealed. It was, however, revealed that the daughter was a student of Mount Vernon public school.

Meanwhile, speaking to local media, Michel Richard Sylvain, who identified himself as the shooter’s brother, said, he came to the scene but was not allowed to enter the home by the police.

"I don't know what's going on. I really can't say anything other than I'm going crazy over that. I can't even go in the house to check what's going on. If I could go inside, I could probably see what's up, but I can't go inside," he said.

He added that a woman who lived upstairs told him she heard yelling and screaming.

"She went to check" and couldn't "understand what they're talking about and she went back upstairs,” he said. Investigation into the case was ongoing.

The incident comes days after a man in Chesapeake, Virginia, fatally shot his wife before killing himself. Officers responded to a home after receiving a report of a shooting incident and found 48-year-old Angela Jones with gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman’s husband, 47-year-old Joseph Jones, barricaded himself inside the residence. When the officers managed to gain entry to the home a few hours later, they found him dead.