Five people died in a knife attack at a home in Queens, New York on Sunday.
New York Police Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said press conference held at Jamaica Hospital on Sunday that officers received a 911 call around 5:10 a.m. about an “assault in progress,” where “the young female caller stated that her cousin was killing members of her family.”
A 28-year veteran and a 16-year veteran police officer responded to the scene and encountered 38-year-old Courtney Gordon, Maddrey said.
“As they got to the driveway, they saw a man get out. He was carrying luggage. The officers asked the man a question or two, an encounter that lasted about 10 seconds, where the man pulled a knife on our officers. He stabbed one officer in the neck/chest area and hit another officer in the head,” Maddrey explained.
According to Maddrey, the 28-year veteran officer was able to draw a firearm and “fire the weapon to stop the attack.” The two officers were taken to a local hospital, as was Gordon, who was “pronounced dead on arrival.”
After additional officers responded to the scene, they found an 11-year-old girl lying outside the home, “deceased from her injuries.”
Maddrey said they were unable to enter the home due to the fire inside the living room and foyer. Once New York City firefighters arrived on the scene, they were able to extinguish the fire, and another person from the home was taken to a local hospital.
When they were able to get inside, the NYFD found an additional “three victims, all dead.”
Stock image of a police siren.
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“We believe that all of the dead — family members, four family members — were all from stab wounds,” Maddrey said. The police director pointed out that the investigation is ongoing and noted that the knife with which the officers were injured was the only weapon found at the scene.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Gordon was home visiting family and had been arrested once in connection with a domestic violence incident in the Bronx. Although authorities have not released a motive behind Gordon’s actions, Kenny explained that the 911 caller is being interviewed at the police station and “may be able to shed some light on what happened.”
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The identities of the victims have not been released; however, Kenny noted that the injured person at the hospital is a 61-year-old woman. The three deceased people found in the home include a 44-year-old woman, a 12-year-old boy and a man in his 30s.
Kenny said the officers were “fine” after the incident and praised them for doing a “great job”.
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Source: HIS Education