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Westchester Man Involved In NYC Triple-Murder Suicide Had Violent Past

A Westchester County man who gunned down three people and then killed himself on his 9-year-old daughter's birthday had a violent past.

The site of the shootings in Brooklyn.

The site of the shootings in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit: Google Maps street view

The killings were discovered around 11:22 p.m., Monday, April 5, when New York City Police responded to a 911 call of shots fired/possible people shot at 362 Sutter Ave., in Brownsville, Brooklyn, said NYPD Detective Annette Shelton. 

When police arrived on the scene, they found three women inside the apartment dead from gunshot wounds, the NYPD said.

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said Tuesday, April 6 the child made the call to 911.

“She was just calling 911, you know, if you can imagine, it’s horrific, the 911, saying, ‘Daddy was coming over for my birthday, and he shot people,’ ” Essig said of the little girl.

“And she was weeping and crying (that she) ‘didn’t have presents.’ It was heartbreaking to hear that. We found her hidden in a closet,’’ he said.

Police said the women, identified as the 45-year-old mother, Rasheeda Barzey, and Barzey’s two other daughters, Chloe Spears, age 16, and Solei Spears, age 20, were shot by the girl's father, Joseph McCrimons, age 46, of Mount Vernon.

During the investigation, a 911 call was placed regarding a male shot in the vicinity of Mother Gaston Boulevard and Sutter Avenue, in close proximity to the location of the murders, Shelton said.

Responding officers found McCrimons within the walkway area of 563 Mother Gaston Blvd., unconscious and unresponsive, with a gunshot wound to the head, believed to be self-inflicted, the NYPD said.

Two firearms were recovered from both McCrimons and the location where he was discovered, police said.

Police say the brutal murders were not McCrimons' first offense.

According to the State Department of Corrections, he was convicted of manslaughter on Long Island in 1995 and served about eight years in prison for killing a location sanitation worker who had broken up a fight.

He was also involved in a bank robbery in Ardsley in 2013 in which he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The couple reportedly had an on-and-off relationship for more than 20 years, but police had not received 911 domestic violence calls from the couple. 

NYPD said the incident is currently under investigation.

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