The gunman who carried out a five-man murder-suicide on a Long Island cul-de-sac on Sunday was the adult son of a recently deceased family patriarch who was “heard crying and wailing.” [and] Police and neighbors said the man “screamed” and then pointed the gun at himself.
The suspect, upset over the death of his 95-year-old mother, Theresa DeLucia, and the looming sale of the Syosset home they shared, started the bloody mayhem inside the little blue house on Wyoming Court, neighbors told The Post and Nassau County’s top police officer told a local news station.
“It’s been difficult. It’s been really sad,” said Wendy Paisner, who lives across the street from the gruesome scene, “but I think his mother passed away and that was the catalyst, because they were trying to sell the house.”
Authorities said Paisner’s son, who he said suffered from mental illness, is suspected of killing four victims inside the home before going onto the front lawn of the home and shooting himself with a gun early Sunday afternoon.
Paisner’s Ring camera captured audio of the shooter killing himself on the lawn, a moment she described as “very disturbing,” and she turned the audio over to authorities while they searched the scene.
“It’s really disturbing to hear. He was screaming and crying. The police are catching him,” she said.
“You hear crying, then gunshots, then some more crying and that’s it.
“It was awful and it makes me really sad because I don’t know what kind of support he received. [psychological issues] Whatever it was, he definitely had some mental issues.”
She noted that the tree was blocking camera footage of the shooter shooting himself.
Paisner, who has lived in the area for 30 years, had visited the house the previous day to check on the man and his brother, who was visiting from out of town.
“He was sad. Ironically, I just told him, ‘Things are going to get better.’ What can I say? He was distraught,” she told The Post. “He’d lived there his whole life, so the idea of having to leave and his state of mind was probably… [pushed him over the edge] … He was a man of stone.”
Investigators are looking into whether a family dispute over an inheritance following DeLucia’s death last week may have led to the shooting, sources told The Washington Post.
“It appears someone was unhappy with the will,” a police source said.
Nassau County police have not yet identified the shooter or the four murder victims, but Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said He told News 12 The man, who lived in the home with his mother, may have been upset about the prospect of the house being sold before opening fire.
Neighbors said the four victims who were shot inside the home are believed to be a family.
Mary Macaluso, a local real estate agent, He told Newsday Relatives of the late family patriarch had contacted her to stop by the house on Sunday to arrange a property sale, and when she arrived in the afternoon, police had already sealed off the road.
The body was removed from the home just after 8 p.m.
The murder-suicide rocked a normally quiet, middle- to upper-class neighborhood populated by business owners, lawyers, doctors and mortgage bankers.
“It’s really shocking. It’s shocking anywhere, but it doesn’t happen that often here so we’re not really used to it,” said Corey Malgulevski, 49, a bank employee who lives less than a half mile away.
“How does this happen? What makes people do this? It appears to be a dispute over money… I think someone was left out of the will,” he told The Post. “It’s just insane that someone would literally kill an entire family over money.”
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the mother and son who lived in the house where the massacre happened were largely isolated from other people.
“In fact, I’ve never seen them. They live in a very isolated place,” said an older man who has lived in the area for 30 years. “They didn’t interact with anyone.”
But Paisner said the suspect, a former paramedic, had emerged as a helpful figure in the neighborhood in recent years, performing mechanical tasks for neighbors.
“He’s become a lot friendlier over the last few years,” she said. “He wasn’t always super friendly, but my husband said he’s turned things around and become more helpful in the neighborhood.”
