NEW YORK — The funeral of a Trinidad and Tobago woman and her daughter, who were shot and killed by a relative after he had barricaded himself in their home late last month, took place in New York yesterday, even as he was charged with their murders.
Police said Kegan Thomas, 33, was charged with attempted murder, murder, arson, aggravated cruelty to animals, and criminal possession of a weapon after the bodies of his mother Clemer Ponce, 56, and his 28-year-old sister, Selena Ponce, were discovered inside their burning home on Ocean Crest Boulevard in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.
He was also charged with aggravated animal cruelty after a dog and a cat inside the home died of smoke inhalation as the fire raged after he started a fire inside.
Thomas’ wife was not injured in the attack.
Clemer and her son were originally from Rousillac Village in Trinidad and Tobago.
Police said the situation unfolded just before noon on July 25 at a home on Ocean Crest Boulevard, when the wife of the suspect had called 911 to tell officers her husband was armed and mentally ill.
“The caller states that her husband is armed and had a history of mental illness and he ‘killed them, killed them,’” NYPD Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh said at the scene of the incident.
The police said when they arrived at the scene, the woman told officers that her husband, Thomas, was inside the home with a shotgun and she had heard a shot and saw a body on the bed.
Police said they tried calling Thomas, but they were unable to reach him and some time later, there was a large explosion at the home and Thomas then emerged armed with a shotgun and wearing a tactical vest.
Officers told him to drop the gun, but he did not comply, so they shot him and he was taken to the hospital.
Police said Thomas was a military veteran and had no criminal history and no mental health history documented with the department. When they arrived at the home, however, his wife warned responding officers that Thomas suffered from a mental illness and was armed.
A neighbour and family friend told the Daily News she was with both victims having coffee and empanadas at their home—a typical Saturday morning ritual—only 20 minutes before the shooting started.
“I was just with them,” said Genesis Jimenez, who has lived next door to the family for six years.
“If I would have stayed a little longer, maybe I was gonna be another victim.”
Jimenez had just returned home to take a nap when she heard police swarm the street, then an explosion, then gunfire, she said. When she looked outside and saw only Thomas’ wife standing with police, she was immediately scared Thomas had “done something,” she said.
Clemer, who grew up in Trinidad and is godmother to Jiminez’s child, previously confided in the neighbour that Thomas, “came back from the military, like, really messed up in the head,” Jiminez said.
Jimenez’s husband, Pierre Mazile, said Clemer had once encouraged a friendship between him and Thomas, who had become isolated following his military service.
“I’ve met him twice. One time, the mom introduced us, and she wanted, I guess, us to be friends, cause he didn’t have any friends in the area,” Mazile said.
“He didn’t really want any friends. He stated that himself. He didn’t want to associate himself with anybody.”
(CMC & New York Daily News)
