Three people were found fatally stabbed inside a home in St. Albans, Queens, on Tuesday, and police said the victims' live-in landlord was in custody as the suspect.
Police found two women and one man with multiple stab wounds inside a building at 122-39 Milburn Street around 7:15 a.m.
At the scene later in the day, NYPD Sgt. Carlos Nieves told reporters that at around 7 a.m., a 54-year-old man came into the 113th Precinct and said he had “done something bad” after a dispute with his roommates.
Police went to the address and entered through the back door, where they found a man and a woman face up with multiple stab wounds on a lower floor, according to the NYPD. They found a woman upstairs on a bed, also with stab wounds. All three were declared dead at the scene.
Nieves said he was unsure how long the landlord and tenants lived together and that "non-payment of rent is one of the avenues we are looking at.”
Police identified David Daniel, 54, as the suspect and said he has no criminal history. They have not released the identities of the victims and said there were no other witnesses in the house.
The knife allegedly used in the stabbings has not been recovered, according to the NYPD. The woman found dead upstairs is believed to have been Daniel's girlfriend.
Reached by phone in Florida on Tuesday, Mark Daniel, David's brother, said he had not heard much about the incident other than what he'd learned from family members, including David's daughter, who does not live with her father. He said he hadn't yet spoken with David, with whom he immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica.
“I don’t know what transpired there," Mark said of the incident. "He’s not a person that really snaps.” He said David had worked as a barber, adding that he was unaware that his brother had a girlfriend and multiple tenants.
"My brother is not a violent person, neither do we go out there and look for trouble," Mark said. "So this is shocking to the entire family right now.”
Alfred Felder was among the neighbors on the quiet, residential block of freestanding homes who watched as police and the medical examiner’s office made their way in and out of the house.
“I feel better that it’s not somebody just running around,” he said. “I’m glad it was an isolated event, but at the same time you never want anything like that to happen to anyone.”
This story has been updated with new information. Due to inaccurate preliminary information provided by the NYPD, the gender of one of the victims has been corrected.
