Police shot and killed a man after he allegedly stabbed four family members to death in Queens Sunday morning, officials said.
Police received a call just after 5 a.m. Sunday reporting an assault in progress at a Far Rockaway home on Beach 22nd Street between Brookhaven Drive and Elk Drive, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a news briefing.
The caller said her cousin was “killing her family members,” Maddrey said.
When two NYPD officers arrived at the home, they saw a man carrying luggage in the driveway and started asking him questions, according to Maddrey.
The man then pulled out a knife and stabbed the two officers.
“He stabs one officer in the neck, chest area,” Maddrey said. “He strikes a second officer in the head.”
After the man stabbed the officers, one of the officers shot him, according to Maddrey. The man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Additional officers who arrived at the scene found a child lying in front of the house, Maddrey said.
The child, an 11-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the briefing.
Police could not initially enter the home, as there was a fire burning inside, Maddrey said. Police believe the suspect lit a couch on fire as he was leaving the home.
After the FDNY arrived and the fire was extinguished, officers found three people dead in the two back bedrooms of the home: a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman and a man in his 30s, Kenny said.
A 61-year-old woman found critically injured inside the home was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, according to Kenny.
Police believe all of the victims sustained stab wounds and were family members of the suspect. Their names were not immediately released.
The suspect was identified by police as 38-year-old Courtney Gordon, who has one prior arrest for a domestic strangulation in the Bronx. Police believe he lived in the Bronx and was visiting his family members in Queens.
A kitchen steak knife the suspect used to stab the two police officers was recovered at the scene, Maddrey said. Police have not yet determined if that weapon was used to attack the other victims.
The two officers who were stabbed were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. One was released Sunday night, and the other is recovering from a laceration to the face, according to Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry.
“Our department surgeon, Dr. [Eli] Kleinman, is here. He is saying that they will walk out of here, that they will be OK," Maddrey said.
A neighbor in Far Rockaway says the attack is part of a wider problem in the city and country.
“Horrible. Horribly concerned that this is happening here. Horribly concerned there’s a growing violent trend in the country, not just here in Rockaway. This is symptomatic of what’s happening everywhere,” Charles Isaac Fergusson told NY1.