A retired NYPD detective shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide at their Westchester County home, according to police, with the couple’s three children also inside.
Police in Yonkers said they received a call just after 7 a.m. Wednesday for a home on Chittenden Avenue in Tuckahoe, and responding officers found a man with a gunshot wound to his head and a woman who had been shot several times. Both were pronounced dead in the home.
The couple was identified as 54-year-old Sean O’Neill, whom investigators said was a former NYPD detective, along with his wife, 47-year-old Arlene O’Neill, who was a fifth-grade teacher at Anne Hutchison Elementary School in Eastchester.
The couple’s three children were inside the home at the time the shots were fired, but were not physically harmed, according to investigators. The children went to stay with other family members afterward.
Responding officers recovered a hand gun at the scene.
It was not immediately clear what led up to the shooting, but detectives said the parents got into a fight at some point beforehand.
The superintendent of the Eastchester Union Free School District shared a note with other parents in the community, expressing sadness and shock at the killing, calling it “an unexpected tragedy.” He also said the district had mobilized the crisis team and would bring in additional resources to help students, faculty and other staff.
