An dispute over unpaid rent ended with a Queens landlord killing his female tenant with a machete and then using the blade to end his life. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
@WiL
Cops were called to the home on 143rd St. in Ozone Park about 11:30 a.m. by a neighbor who had heard screams.
Police found a gruesome scene, with the 48-year-old tenant sprawled out in the back yard, bleeding from severe wounds to her head.
The 62-year-old landlord was found inside a first-floor bedroom, bleeding from a deep slice wound to his throat, police said.
The machete was found near his body. Police also told neighbors that the man had sliced his wrists.
Both the landlord and the tenant were taken by ambulance to Jamaica Hospital, where they died. Police did not immediately name either person.
A next-door neighbor, who declined to provide his name, said that, during a recent conversation with the landlord, the man had mentioned how the tenant had not paid rent for at least six months.
Another neighbor said the tenant, who lived in a basement apartment with a teenage son, had not paid rent for the past two years. That neighbor, who would only give his first name, Basil, said he was stunned by what happened.
“He never seemed like anyone that would do something like this. Something just snapped,†the neighbor said.
A third neighbor, who would only give her first name, Pasdy, said that shortly before the violence, she had seen the landlord try to talk to the tenant as she entered the residence, but she ignored him.
“The man was a hard-working man. He kept to himself,†Pasdy said.
Neighbors said they would often see the man using the machete to do yard work.
