Man Distraught Over Sale Of Late Mother's Home Fatally Shoots 4 Family Members

MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man distraught that he was being forced to move from his late mother’s home shot and killed four of his family members before taking his own life, police said Monday.

Joseph DeLucia, Jr. and his family had gathered shortly before noon on Sunday in his mother’s home in Syosset, about 15 miles east of New York City on suburban Long Island, just three days after laying the matriarch to rest.

But instead of discussing the planned sale of the home, where DeLucia Jr. had lived his entire life, the 59-year-old fired 12 rounds from a shotgun he’d obtained, killing his three siblings and a niece, according to Nassau County Police Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick.

DeLucia then walked out to the front lawn of the cul-de-sac street “shouting indiscriminately” about what he had just done before turning the gun on himself, he said.

The victims were Joanne Kearns, 69, of Tampa, Florida; Frank DeLucia, 64, of Durham, North Carolina; and Tina Hammond, 64, and her daughter Victoria Hammond, 30, both of East Patchogue, also on Long Island.

Fitzpatrick added that other surviving family members told police that the family had assured DeLucia, Jr. he would be provided for and wasn’t being cut out of the will, but he had to move out of the house.

The family had gathered at the house ahead of a meeting with a local real estate agent, he said.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said police learned only after the shooting that there were concerns in the community that DeLucia might harm himself or others as he had been emotional and distraught following his mother’s death and did not want to be forced out of his home.

Using so-called “red flag” laws, police could have potentially interceded and prevented