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Man Hangs Himself After Shooting Wife and Stepdaughter, Police Say

By  Sybile Penhirin and Aidan Gardiner | April 1, 2015 8:51am 

 The family was fighting in their Ridgewood home before the father shot them, police said.
The family was fighting in their Ridgewood home before the father shot them, police said.
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DNAinfo/Sybile Penhirin

QUEENS — A man who told his wife that he was going to send her back to her native Romania in a coffin  came close to honoring his promise on Tuesday evening when he shot her twice inside their Ridgewood home, police and a priest who knows the family said. 

The 65-year-old man, whose name has not been released, shot his 54-year-old wife in the back and his 31-year-old stepdaughter in the arm inside the second-floor kitchen of their shared Gates Avenue home near Fresh Pond Road, an NYPD spokesman said.

He then hanged himself, officials said.

"(He was a) very jealous man. Sometimes he followed her to her job, " said Ionut Preda a priest at at The Descent of the Holy Spirit, a Romanian Orthodox Church where he said the wife has been very active for years.

"A few days ago he told her 'prepare to go back to Romania in a coffin'" the priest said.

Tuesday evening she told the priest that the argument started over rent, which he did not want to pay and it escalated, Preda, who visited the wife and her daughter at Elmhurst Hospital on Tuesday evening, said. 

"They were in shock but they were okay. We prayed together" he said.

Gates Avenue was teeming with police, including the hostage negotiation team, after they got a call about an assault in the home around 8 p.m., police and neighbors said.

"I was scared," said the family's downstairs neighbor who only gave her name as Laura, 73.

"I heard them fighting and then police officers came and took me to their cars so I would be protected," she said in Romanian through a translator. Laura said the shooter and his wife argued frequently and loudly.

The shooter barricaded himself into the home, an NYPD spokeswoman said. When police finally got to him, he had hanged himself, the spokeswoman said. 

"It's very very disturbing and I feel sorry for him too" Preda said. 

Neighbors and Preda said the wife is very much appreciated in the neighborhood.

"She's is very helpful, she cares about others, she takes part in the church activities on a regular basis, helps for special events, she's always volunteering," said Pedra.