NEW YORK - “I am devastated. I am broken,” said Richard Celestin, exhausted from crying. His 35-year-old little sister Cathiana Bonny was killed.

“We were six years apart, but the truth is that we were very much like twins,” he said. “It seems like it’s out of a movie. It’s not my life.”

Police say last Monday Bonny’s husband shot her and then shot himself.

It happened in the driveway of their Deer Park Long Island home they moved to from Queens this year.  Family members say their 12-year-old daughter saw everything. Both she and the six year old rushed to their mother as she lay dying.

“I do not envy the journey that they’re going to have to take in terms of understanding what has happened," Celestin said about his nieces, "But I also know they’re surrounded by a tremendous amount of love.”

The two girls he says are with his brother’s family now, resilient and perhaps numb from witnessing years of domestic abuse.

Reports of domestic violence increased across the globe during the pandemic. The United Nation’s says confinement fosters tension created by security, health, and money worries. Celestin doesn’t believe this incident was COVID-19 related.

“My fear was that it was going to be seen and portrayed as a random COVID related incident, when there been a history of abuse,” he said.

He wants his sister’s death to save other lives, warning people to leave abusive relationships before they can't.

"Especially if you have children that are witnessing that because God forbid they normalize that, and they think that's what love looks like,” he said.

Suffolk County Police say charges against the husband are dependent upon his survival. He is critical condition after turning the gun on himself.