EASTCHESTER, Bronx (WABC) — The family members of a man who was shot and killed by police after a deadly stabbing spree in Queens this weekend are speaking out about what may have led the man to snap.
Courtney Gordon, 38, is accused of attacking seven people on Sunday morning. Four relatives died, including two children, and a 61-year-old woman remains in critical condition.
The suspect also slashed two responding officers who were later released from the hospital Sunday night.
His family members in the Bronx say they tried to get him help a few months ago but he refused. They tried to get him checked into a hospital, but they say he wouldn’t go.
His mother feared for her own safety and said she started locking the doors upstairs while he was staying in a room downstairs — but recently she even stopped letting him stay there.
So for the past month or so he was staying with his family in Far Rockaway.
Family members say he was driving for a ride share service but his car had broken down, so he was out of work, and that he was on medication but he stopped taking it.
His life they say, and his mental health, began to unravel a few months ago. And then this weekend he allegedly snapped and killed four of his relatives.
When cops arrived on the scene, Gordon was leaving the driveway with luggage and one of the officers shot and killed him.
Police found an 11-year-old girl lying on the ground outside the home.
Gordon also allegedly set fire to a couch in the living room. After firefighters put that out, officers found three others dead inside, including a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman, and a 30-year-old man.
His cousin says he knew him all his life, but never imagined he would do this — but also says he saw the signs.
“He was he like, he’s just very defensive towards everybody and verbally, you can see that the clues of what he was, what he did, you just seeing it, like he would yell very loud, top of his voice, so it like kind of would bring everybody into this, like, kind of let me not talk to him because I don’t know if he’s going to know what he’s about,” the suspect’s cousin Sean McCoy said.
Gordon has a prior arrest for strangulation in a domestic incident.
The victims haven’t been identified yet, but the 61-year-old fighting to stay alive is his aunt, who was trying to take him in.
ALSO READ | Queens stabbing rampage leaves 4 dead, 2 officers hurt
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