1 dead, 3 found unconscious in Queens, probe ongoing

Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York City on March 26, 2020. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 6:15 PM PT – Thursday, January 14, 2021

A 30-year-old man is arrested, a 72-year-old man is dead and three others are in critical condition after possibly ingesting poison in a bizarre crime scene in Queens.

On Thursday, officers responded to an apparent domestic incident at a home where they found a 72-year-old man dead with stab wounds. According to reports, a man was acting erratically at the scene as well. He was later identified as 30-year-old Jaimie Walker and then taken into custody.

“Officers observed the male in the hallway acting very incoherently,” NYPD Assistant Chief Joe Kenney said. “He made statements that he had injured somebody inside the apartment.”

Three other victims were found unconscious and lying side by side on a mattress with bottles of an unknown substance beside them. They were quickly transported to the hospital in critical condition.

“They had no apparent signs of trauma to their bodies,” Kenney stated. “They were believed to be family members of the male that we had just taken into custody. These people are as follows: A female in her seventies, she is believed to be the subject’s mother; a male in his thirties, he is believed to be the subject’s brother; and another female who is believed to be subject’s brother’s wife.”

According to reports, the three people rushed to the hospital are expected to survive. Detectives said there were no elevated CO2 levels in the apartment nor did they find irregularities in air samples. Further analysis showed the victims were possibly poisoned.

The scene was initially thought to be a “mass chemical suicide,” however, officials speculate the incident may have occurred during some kind of religious ceremony.

According to officials, they do not have a clear motive for the allegations and Walker was taken to the hospital to undergo a psych evaluation.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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