A woman who had recently left her husband and moved in with her daughter was shot by the estranged husband in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. The husband then killed himself. Karen Skellas had been accepting a housewarming gift from coworker John D'Atri when Ioannis Skellas appeared. D'Atri told reporters, "From out of nowhere this person appears with a hood over his head. In the blink of an eye, he came towards her and fired." Mr. Skellas had a sawed-off shotgun in his sweatshirt and fired at the housewarming gift - bags of groceries. After the couple yelled at each other, the husband fatally shot his wife in the head. A neighbor tells the NY Times that Mr. Skellas then ran away. He reloaded his gun, returned to Mrs. Skellas's body, and shot himself.
According to the Daily News, the couple's daughter Angela arrived home shortly after the shooting to see her parents' bodies. Another neighbor the NY Times spoke to was started by the gunshots on East Second Street:
After witnessing the shooting, Mr. D’Atri’s attempts to find refuge on East Second Street were futile, with neighbors frightened by the loud gunshots. One neighbor, Rina Louzieh, said she was startled when a man appeared at her door.
“We just heard shots, three shots. This man came to our home,” she said. “He said, ‘Please open your door. Someone wants to kill me.’ He pushed too much. He’s too big.
“He said, ‘Please, someone wants to kill me.’ I said, ‘Let him kill you outside.’ And that’s it, I shut the door.”
Acquaintances were shocked to hear the news of the shooting, though one said Mr. Skellas had inquired about an investigator recently.
