January 23, 2026 The neighbors at 2500 Johnson Avenue woke up to the sound of sirens and screams on Thursday morning, marking the end of the peace in one of the city's safest enclaves.

What unfolded inside a ground-floor apartment in Spuyten Duyvil is the stuff of nightmares: a retired law enforcement officer, trained to protect, allegedly turned a firearm on his own flesh and blood in a devastating murder-suicide.

The Morning the Music Died

At 8 a.m. on January 22, the 50th Precinct—an area that saw only one homicide in all of 2025—was flooded with emergency units. They arrived to find a gruesome trail of violence:

• The Hallway: A 55-year-old man lay dead from a self-inflicted wound, a Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) ID found near his body.

• The Bedroom: His 59-year-old sister, known to neighbors as Maria, was found with a fatal gunshot wound to her head.

• The Living Area: Their 86-year-old mother was discovered clinging to life after being shot directly in the face. She was rushed to Harlem Hospital in critical condition.

"She Loved to Dance"

The tragedy has left the community in a state of paralysis. Maria, a New York State employee, was described by friends as a vibrant woman who lived for travel and family.

"Maria, she was wonderful," said neighbor Jane Burbank, her voice trembling. "She loved dancing, and she loved to eat... She was looking forward to her retirement so she could travel more."

Shockingly, many close to Maria didn't even know her brother existed. "I didn’t even know he existed," Burbank added, echoing the confusion of a building full of people who never saw the "retired cop" coming.

A Neighborhood in Mourning

Spuyten Duyvil is the kind of place where people grow up and stay for decades. Residents like Daniel Gallant, who has lived in the building his entire life, are struggling to process the carnage.

"Never could I once imagine that there would be an altercation, let alone a shooting, occur in my building," Gallant said. "It’s disturbing, honestly."

The NYPD is currently treating the case as a murder-suicide attempt. While the mother remains in stable but critical condition, the investigation is digging into the retired officer's past to find out what could have triggered such an unthinkable act of domestic terror.