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Police: Centereach cop kills wife, shoots self
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A dissolving marriage was "at the crux" of a murder-suicide by a New York City cop in Centereach Monday, according to Suffolk police.
Police allege that Francis Cole, 48, an off-duty New York City Police Department lieutenant shot his wife, Elena, 46, at their Centereach home Monday around noon before turning the gun on himself.
Suffolk County Sixth Precinct police officers responded to a 911 call at 12:35 pm from Savoy Court, where they discovered Elena dead in an upstairs bedroom, after having been allegedly shot and stabbed by her husband, who police found incapacitated from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Francis Cole was transported Stony Brook University Medical Center and pronounced dead a short time later, police reported.
Their 18-year-old daughter, who had attempted to defend her mother and then reported the incident to police, sustained a minor head injury.
The daughter, whose name police declined to release Monday, "attempted to prevent her father from assaulting her mother and was struck in the mouth," Suffolk Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick said.
The teen's injury was not severe enough to require hospital treatment, Fitzpatrick added. Police reported no injury to Elena Cole's 81-year-old mother, who they said was also at the residence during the conflict.
The Coles had been going through divorce proceedings, according to Fitzpatrick.
"It seems that that was the issue at the crux" of the murder-suicide, he said. Cole had no record of prior domestic violence, Fitzpatrick added.
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