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Four killed, including 2 kids, 2 police officers injured in Queens stabbing rampage, officials say

The officers who were slashed are reportedly expected to recover.

Published: December 3, 2023 8:43am

Updated: December 3, 2023 10:55am

Four people were killed, including two children, and two New York City Police Department officers were injured after a stabbing rampage and a fire early Sunday morning in the New York City borough of Queens, officials said. 

First responders received an emergency call for an assault at a Far Rockaway, Queens, home shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday and discovered three people dead on the scene, The New York Post reported.

The killer fatally stabbed four relatives, including an 11-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, and then lit the living room couch on fire as he fled, police said, according to The New York Daily News.

When officers responded to the home, they discovered a man leaving the home while carrying luggage. When officers tried to speak with the man, he pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed one of the officers in the neck and chest and the other in the head before one of the officers fatally shot him. Both officers are expected to recover. 

Officials identified the suspect as Courtney Gordon, 38.

Police also found the 11-year-old girl stabbed in front of the home and she died later at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. 

Police entered the home after firefighters extinguished the blaze, and officers discovered the bodies of a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman and a man in his 30s in the back bedrooms, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

Another victim, a 61-year-old woman, is hospitalized in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times. 

The victims' names have not been released. 

The suspect had a previous arrest for domestic violence involving strangulation in the Bronx, officials said. 

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