A man distraught over his mother’s recent death – as well as his family’s plan to sell the home where he had spent his entire life – fatally shot three of his older siblings as well as a niece before killing himself on Sunday on New York’s Long Island, according to investigators.
The shocking violence attributed to 59-year-old Joseph DeLucia Jr seems to fit the definition of a type of crime known since the 1980s as family annihilations. The overwhelming majority of these cases involve a male killer armed with a gun who ultimately kills himself after murdering multiple close family members.
American communities tend to view family annihilations as isolated tragedies, but a July 2023 Indianapolis Star investigation found they had been occurring across the US once every five days on average.
In DeLucia Jr’s case, the local police commissioner pleaded with the public to come forward whenever concerned about someone’s mental wellbeing, as NBC New York reported.
Officials said DeLucia Jr met on Sunday with his brother, two sisters and a daughter of one of the women three days after the siblings had held a funeral for their late mother, 95-year-old Theresa DeLucia. The victims planned to discuss selling Theresa’s home in Syosset, where Joseph had lived his entire life, in the New York county of Nassau.
But DeLucia Jr – who worked as an auto mechanic – did not let the discussion happen. He grabbed a shotgun and fired it at his relatives a dozen times, killing all of them, Stephen Fitzpatrick, the Nassau county police captain, told reporters on Monday.
Fitzpatrick said DeLucia then walked out to the home’s front yard, screamed about what he had done and killed himself.
First responders summoned to the scene found the bodies of Joanne Kearns, 69; Frank DeLucia, 64; Tina Hammond, 64; and her daughter Victoria Hammond, 30. Kearns lived in Tampa, Florida; Frank DeLucia in Durham, North Carolina; and the Hammonds in East Patchogue, New York, also on Long Island.
Citing statements from other relatives, Fitzpatrick said De Lucia Jr’s family assured him they would provide for him and that he had not been cut out of his mother’s last will. But the family’s plans did require him to move out of the house where the killings took place, Fitzpatrick said.
The Nassau police commissioner, Patrick Ryder, said officers only learned after Sunday’s slayings of general concerns that DeLucia Jr might try to hurt himself or others given his distress over his mother’s death and the sale of the family home. Ryder said officers could have possibly stepped in and cut off DeLucia Jr’s access to guns if only they had been notified that he was possibly struggling with his mental health.
A neighbor of DeLucia Jr, Wendy Paisner, told NBC New York it was obvious even from a distance that he “really needed … emotional support” before Sunday’s killings.
According to Ryder, police in recent years had only been called to check on DeLucia Jr a single time. That encounter offered up no signs that DeLucia Jr was a danger – the sole arrest on his record stemmed from allegations of intoxicated driving back in 1983, Ryder said.
“We are asking our community to not sit back,” Ryder said at Monday’s news briefing. “Be our eyes, be our ears and let us know what is happening.
“We’re not saying this incident could have been averted, but maybe it could have.”
The US does not understand family annihilations as well as it perhaps could because there is no centralized database for that kind of crime providing insights into its characteristics or precise prevalence.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.
