On Sunday, Feb. 19, an electrician is suspected of fatally shooting his beautician wife and their two children before turning the gun on himself, gistpeople reports
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The identities and ages of the victims in the murder-suicide in Linden, Union County, New Jersey, have not been released by authorities.
According to ABC7, one of the children, the couple’s son, initially survived the shooting that killed his mother and sister. However, the boy died hours later at University Hospital in Newark, according to Linden police.
The horrific shooting shocked neighbors, who described the family as friendly and helpful neighbors who moved into their home in 2007.
“They’re a regular family. That’s why it’s difficult to believe,” Angel Montanez, 56, told The Washington Post. “Every long weekend, they go camping with a trailer hooked up to their car. They just renovated their kitchen, and he invited me over to see it.”
Montanez stated that he and his father discussed work on a regular basis because they are both electricians. The families would frequently take each other’s children to school.
“You never know what happens behind closed doors, but I’m still stunned. “The whole family is gone,” he explained.
Last week, his wife drove the slain children to school.
“I never imagined that dropping them off at school last week would be the last time I saw them,” Marianela Montanez, 47, said. “I simply cannot believe it. They were ordinary kids. They’d take the dog for a walk and swim in the pool. They’re gone now, just like that.”
She claimed she spoke with the slain wife while doing her hair last week.
“She was telling me about insurance, expenses, how the kids are graduating this year, the middle school prom — normal stuff,” she explained. “She made no mention of any problems.”
Digna Alvarez, 76, another neighbor, said she never heard any fighting from the house and described the father as kind and always willing to help.
“Every day when he came home from work, we talked to him. He worked as an electrician. He assisted with the installation of electricity in our home. “I don’t know what happened to him; he was a very nice person,” she said. “And the children, beautiful children. I didn’t hear any fights or anything.”
According to Alvarez, she was at home with her sister-in-law when the relative heard a child scream.
“She heard screaming, but she thought it was someone playing with the dog, and then nothing,” she explained.
Linden Police spokesman Capt. Christopher Guenther told NJ.com after the killings that there is no danger to the public.
Before killing himself, an electrician shoots his wife and two children.
According to neighbors, the father was an electrician, and his wife was a beautician who ran a salon out of their home. According to the residents, the couple was friendly and walked their dog around the neighborhood.
“This morning I was in shock,” Alvarez said. “It’s not something you’d expect — never… There’s no reason for him to murder his wife and children. I can’t believe he’d do something like that.”
However, a female resident who requested anonymity told ABC that the father would occasionally shoot his gun in the backyard, resulting in police visits.
“But I never thought he’d do something like that,” she said.
Alvarez’s husband, who said he spoke with his father on Saturday, speculated that he had a mental breakdown.
“We were just talking about it yesterday,” Jose Alvarez, 83, told The Washington Post. “He was telling me he was going in for a knee operation soon. It was just a normal conversation… Perhaps he just went insane. “I can’t think of anything else.”
“This morning, Linden suffered another tragedy,” Linden Mayor Derek Armstead wrote on Facebook.
“There are simply no words to describe the trauma, heartbreak, and sorrow that we are all going through.”
