Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:02 by GxMedia
(WALL STREET JOURNAL).-An off-duty New York Police Department officer apparently shot and killed her 1-year-old son and the boy’s father before fatally shooting herself inside her apartment in
Police officers responding to the scene found Rosette Samuel, 43 years old, inside a bedroom of the East 56 Street ground-floor apartment at about 8:30 am, the official said, with her young son by her side on a bed. Both were dead when the police arrived, the official said. The baby was identified as Dylan Samuel-Peters.
The father of the boy, who was identified as 33-year-old Dason Peters, was found shot to death in a hallway in the apartment. According to the official, Samuel’s 19-year-old son from a previous relationship was able to escape the apartment through a window and encountered police officers as they responded to the scene.
The teenager, Dondre Samuel, called 911 when he saw his mother standing with a gun as Peters sat on the floor, the official said. After being ordered back to his room by the couple, he heard a gunshot, the official said.
In a brief exchange with his mother before she apparently shot Dylan and then herself, Rosette Samuel apologized to Dondre Samuel and told him she had left a letter behind for him, the official said.
A note was found by investigators in a purse inside the apartment in which Rosette Samuel apparently wrote that she was sorry for her actions and that she had $42,000 in a retirement account so Dondre Samuel can go to college, the official said.
According to the official, there was little sign of trouble in Rosette Samuel’s life at work.
The official said Samuel had been an officer since September 2000 and was assigned to the 108th Precinct in
But Dondre Samuel told detectives that his mother and Peters had an argument on Saturday over a hand written letter that his mother had received, the official said. The contents of that letter were not known. The letter had been torn up and flushed down a toilet in the home, Dondre Samuel told investigators, according to the official.
Friends and relatives of the couple were shaken by the sudden violence, describing Peters as a loving father who was scheduled to travel to his native
Relatives said the couple tended to be private about their relationship but had never displayed signs of trouble.