Three from same family shot to death at Upper West Side apartment; gunman dies fleeing cops
Three men from the same family were shot to death Thursday in an upper West Side apartment - and the suspected killer jumped to his death trying to escape, police said.
A woman, identified by relatives as Gisela Rodriguez, and her daughter walked in on the bloodbath.
The elder woman was pistol-whipped by the killer, but managed to escape the apartment at 492 Amsterdam Ave. alive, police said.
She was being treated for a head wound at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Center Hospital.
Rodriguez's daughter ran to a bedroom, where she found the bodies of two male relatives, and locked the door. She escaped out a window and climbed the fire escape to the roof, a source said.
"She was hysterical. She said there was a shooting. She said someone shot her brother," said a witness who called 911 after speaking to Rodriguez's daughter.
When cops came in, the gunman, identified as Hector Quinones, jumped out the third-floor kitchen window and tumbled off the fire escape at the back of the building, a source said.
Detectives said they believe the triple murder was drug-related. A small amount of cocaine was found inside the apartment as well as on Quinones' body.
The victims were identified as three generations from the same family: 87-year-old Fernando Gonzalez, his 52-year-old son Carlos Rodriguez Snr. and his 21-year-old grandson - also named Carlos Rodriguez.
The 52-year-old had a criminal rap sheet that included arrests for guns and drugs.
Quinones, who was recently released from jail, was found dead in the back yard, apparently from a broken neck. He was wearing rubber gloves, a source said.
"He wasn't going to leave any fingerprints," the source said of Quinones.
It appears someone may have been stabbed in the explosion of violence since a bloody butcher knife was left on the kitchen table.
"The bedroom was ransacked," the source said. "There was a struggle. There was a bloody foot-long knife on the kitchen table. Imagine the biggest knife in your butcher block."
A .380 caliber pistol was also found in the bedroom.
Two of the victims, the father and son were found in a bedroom, a source said. The grandfather was found slain in the bathroom, the source said.
It appeared the killer tossed the apartment looking for something, the source said.
"There was a broken mirror, glass everywhere," the source said. "We're looking into whether it's drug related."
Relatives of the Rodriguez family said the family had lived in the apartment for over 30 years.
"It's a terrible surprise," said a man who identified himself as Gisela Rodriguez's godson. "I can't believe it."
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Sources: NY Daily News, NYC Fotos, Google Maps
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