By Suzanne Ma and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Reporter/Producers
UPPER WEST SIDE — A restraining order, $30,000 of debt and endless screaming matches marked the lives of the Rodriguez family before their grisly demise in an Upper West Side apartment Thursday afternoon, the building’s superintendent said.
Police believe drugs were involved in the shooting deaths of the three generations of the Rodriguez family — Carlos Rodriguez Sr., 52, his 24-year-old son Carlos Rodriguez Jr., and his grandfather, Fernando Gonzalez, 87.
Rodriguez Sr. had a number of priors relating to drugs, and had served prison time with the alleged gunman, Hector Quinones, 44, who plunged to his death shortly after the massacre.
A significant amount of heroin and small amounts of cocaine were found inside the apartment.
A 50-year-old neighborhood man — who did not wish to be identified — said that he had been offered drugs numerous times outside the apartment building.
“They would stand out here and hock and say ‘Hey, yo, you wanna have some blow, weed?’"
The building’s superintendent, Hector O’neal [sic], described the family as “very difficult,” displaying a 2002 restraining order he took out on Carlos Sr. after the man threatened O’neal with a huge knife.
“It was noisy all the time,” O’neal said. “Noise between the family, the kids, his son… Fighting between the father and his wife all the time.”
The Rodriguez’ owed $30,000 in back rent, and O’neal credited a Thursday court appearance by Giselle Rodriguez — the wife of Carlos Sr. — and her 27-year-old daughter Leyanis as the reason they are both still alive.
The two were in housing court that morning to defend the family from eviction.
They returned to 492 Amsterdam Ave. to find Quinones at the door, holding a .380 automatic in his gloved hands. After a brief tussle with the gunman, during which the gun went off and a bullet grazed her head, Giselle escaped.
Leyanis ran into the bedroom, where she locked herself in with the bodies of her brother and grandfather. Quinones burst into the room, but when he tripped over his own baggy pants, Leyanis was able to escape too.
Giselle remained in stable condition at St. Luke's Hospital in Morningside Heights on Friday.
A few feet of police tape and a makeshift memorial outside the apartment building were all that remained of the Rodriguez’ on Friday afternoon.
Winston Nash, 29, was one of many mourners visiting the makeshift memorial who expressed surprise that the family was involved in drugs.
Nash said Carlos Rodriguez Jr. was an avid athlete who was well known in the neighborhood and described him as a “good kid.”
“He never was into the drug dealing — no cocaine, no heroin, none of that,” Nash said.
Carlos Jr.’s best friend, Joey Columbus, had tears streaming down his face as he lit three candles for his fallen friend. He had known Carlos since the sixth grade and called him funny and outgoing.
“He loved to enjoy life,” Columbus said, adding that Carlos had hoped to someday buy his mother a house.
Several people attended Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. Spanish-language mass at nearby Holy Trinity Church, where the Rodrguez’ attended services, to pray for the family.
"In the 20 years I’ve been here, this is the first such brutal murder that I can remember in the neighborhood,” said Father Thomas Leonard, who led the mass. “It’s very safe and generally quiet.”
