NYPD cops shot and wounded an armed man outside a Queens home Saturday after a standoff followed by an explosion in the place’s garage — after which two of the gunman’s relatives were found dead inside the home, police said.
A shaken friend and neighbor of the two victims told the Daily News she had been with them just minutes before they were killed, and that they were the gunman’s own mother and sister. Police did not immediately confirm the relationships.
Friends and neighbors said the suspect is a veteran who suffered from mental illness after serving in the military.
Cops responded to a woman’s 911 call that a man identified as Kegan Thomas, 33, armed with a shotgun, had shot two people inside the two-story home on Ocean Crest Blvd. near Hartman Ln. in Far Rockaway around 11:55 a.m., police said.
The woman who called 911 was Thomas’ wife, who heard gunshots and discovered a body on the bed, NYPD Chief Christopher McIntosh. She warned responding officers that Thomas had a mental illness and was armed.
“Kill, kill them, kill them,” Thomas said, according to McIntosh.
Officers attempted to call and establish a conversation with Thomas as he was barricaded in the house. Around 12:15 p.m., a large explosion erupted in the place’s garage.
After the explosion, Thomas ran out of the home holding a shotgun, and several police officers opened fire at him.
“Within 15 to 20 seconds of the explosion, the subject emerged from the house armed with a shotgun while wearing a tactical vest with additional ammo in it,” McIntosh said.
Genesis Jimenez, 27, a friend of both victims and their next-door neighbor for the past six years, described a typical Saturday morning, saying she came over to have coffee and empanadas with them at their place, then went back home to take a nap — until, five minutes later, she suddenly heard police swarming the street, followed soon after that by an explosion, and then gunfire.
“I was just with them,” Jimenez said. “And it didn’t pass, like, 20 minutes before everything happened. So I’m, like, if I would have stayed a little longer, maybe was I gonna be another victim or maybe I was gonna stop him from actually doing what he did.”
Jimenez said the mother — who was the godmother of her own child — grew up in Trinidad. The younger victim, meanwhile, she said, who was “like a sister” to Jimenez, was a nurse at St. John’s Hospital.
She said when she saw the police arrive — but only the suspect’s wife standing outside — she was immediately frightened that he had “done something.”
“The mom said that he came back from the military, like, really messed up in the head,” she said.
Video from a witness posted on social media shows a chaotic scene, with more than 10 gunshots fired and thick clouds of black smoke billowing from the house. Multiple officers shout, “Don’t move!” as heavily armed cops advance steadily toward the home.
In turn, a fire erupted from the explosion as 21 firefighters and EMS personnel rushed to the scene. The blaze was placed under control by around 1:13 p.m., the FDNY said.
“After failing to comply with repeat commands to put his hands up and still armed with a shotgun, officers discharged their weapons and struck the subject,” McIntosh said.
EMS rushed Thomas to Jamaica Hospital where he was in critical but stable condition.
Two of the suspect’s relatives were found dead inside his home, cops said. Their identification were pending. No one was injured due to the fire as cops evacuated nearby homes, cops and FDNY said.
Thomas had no criminal history or known mental health history, the police official said.
Jimenez’s husband, Pierre Mazile, 29, who watched through his window as the warzone-like scene unfolded, described how, after police arrived, the garage explosion rocked the neighborhood.
“The house was shaking from the explosion,” he said. “We got down on the ground. You seen the garage door, like, just blow open. From then on, it was just smoke coming in.”
“It all happened so fast. The moment he even stepped outside, shots were fired. He got shot, shot a few times, and he fell down the stairs, hit the ground.”
“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “I mean, I knew the neighbor had issues and all that stuff, but I never think it would get that far.”
Earlier this month, a police-involved shooting in Brooklyn saw a teenage gunman charged with attempted murder in connection with the friendly-fire shooting of an NYPD detective who was struck in his bullet-resistant vest.
Camani Bartletto, 18, was hit with the charge for allegedly firing at an Uber shortly before the detective was shot — and was also charged with gun possession, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.
The wounded cop, Det. Robert Karroll, a 20-year veteran, escaped the harrowing 4:12 a.m. encounter at Nostrand Ave. and St. John’s Place in Crown Heights with a bruise. Three of the four officers at the scene fired at the gunman, police said, with one shot striking Karroll in the back, the bullet lodging in his vest.
Bartletto, who was not shot, ran off. But other officers chased him down near Rogers Ave. and Union St. and subdued him with a taser, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at press conference at Kings County Hospital, where Karroll was treated and released. A second officer was treated for minor injuries.
