Father kills self, 3 others at daughter’s birthday party

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A man who attended his daughter’s birthday party turned the joyful event into a violent scene when he shot the child’s mom, two half-sisters and himself in the middle of the celebration.

The man, Joseph McCrimon, committed the murders inside an apartment in Brooklyn, New York on Monday, April 5. He then walked out to a nearby sidewalk and shot himself, an act that was captured by security cameras, New York Times reported yesterday.

The sole survivor from the incident was the birthday celebrant, a 9-year-old girl who hid in a closet as the scene unfolded. She called emergency services late that night to tell police that her father came to her party and killed everyone in her family.

When officers arrived, they found the bodies of three female victims who were all fatally shot. They were identified as the child’s mother Rasheeda Barzey, 45, and two half-sisters Chloe and Solei Spears, local news outlet PIX 11 said in a report yesterday.

They also found the father’s body in a walkway near the building with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. There were two firearms found on the scene. One was held by McCrimon and another was near his body.

The girl was asleep when she heard the sound of gunshots and hid in the closet, as per New York Times. She was not injured during the shooting.

Investigators, still working to determine the motive for the killings, have interviewed the girl’s neighbors and other family members. An official said McCrimmon and Barzey had a romantic relationship for 20 years, which was described as “very rocky,” as stated in the report.

They did not have any domestic violence complaints or 911 calls on record, but McCrimmon was no stranger to violence. He was convicted for first-degree manslaughter in 1995, had an unspecified violation in 2000 and pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in 2013. Dana Cruz/JB

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