YONKERS, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — A retired NYPD officer and his wife were found dead in their Yonkers home on Wednesday, in what local police are calling an apparent murder-suicide.
Units from the Yonkers Police Department responded to 142 Chittenden Ave. just after 7 a.m. on Wednesday and found 54-year-old Sean O’Neill with a gunshot wound to his head, and his wife, 47-year-old Arlene O’Neill, with multiple gunshot wounds to the body.
First responders attempted to perform life-saving measures on the woman, but she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
An investigation by Yonkers detectives determined that the deaths were caused by an apparent-murder suicide.
Authorities said that an argument broke out between the couple and resulted in Sean shooting Arlene multiple times with a handgun before killing himself.
Sean joined the NYPD in 1993 and was a detective at the time of his retirement last year, and Arlene worked as a fifth-grade teacher in the Eastchester Union Free School District, police said.
The couple’s three children, who all attended the district where Arlene worked, were at home at the time of the shooting. They were physically unharmed and are currently in the custody of family members, officials said.
"This morning, our district is dealing with an unexpected tragedy, as it has learned that Anne Hutchinson fifth-grade teacher Arlene O’Neill has died in her home in Tuckahoe," Eastchester Superintendent Ronald Valenti said in a letter the the district community.
He said that the district is "shocked and saddened by this development," and that the Eastchester crisis team was deployed along with additional resources from other local school districts to provide comfort to those in need of support.
“The City of Yonkers and the Yonkers Police Department extend our condolences to the family and friends of the O’Neill family,” the Yonkers Police Department said.
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