Suspect in NYC murder-suicide was fun-loving native child who went off the rails, pals mentioned: ‘I am numb’

The suspected gunman behind a bloody Bronx quadruple murder-suicide was a fun-loving native child who performed sports activities and labored development earlier than his life unexpectedly went off the rails.

Kaseem Stukes, 44, went to elementary faculty at PS 36 and junior excessive at PS 125 in Unionport, and grew up with a tight-knit group of pals who have been “just trying to make it,” childhood pal Felix Angomas mentioned.

But regardless of a gun rap earlier this 12 months, pals and neighbors are shocked that he could possibly be the monster who gunned down his 75-year-old mother, his daughter and her beau earlier than turning the gun on himself in a Bronx massacre on Wednesday.

“I’m still numb,” Angomas, 47, advised The Post Thursday. “I don’t know what could have led up to this.”

“I went to school with him. We went to PS 36 and PS 125. He was one of us. We got together, walked to school. We played football, basketball,” he added. “He was a fun guy. We were all out here, trying to do the best we can.”

On Wednesday morning, Stukes allegedly shot his mom, Theresa, alongside together with his 26-year-old daughter, Kianna, and the youthful lady’s boyfriend, Andrew Reynoso, 33, contained in the household’s fifth-floor residence on the Castle Hill House public housing complicated.

He then turned the gun on himself, regulation enforcement sources mentioned.

Police haven’t revealed what might have triggered the lethal outburst.

The violence surprised neighbors, who mentioned Theresa Stukes as a beloved longtime tenant identified within the constructing as one in every of “The Golden Girls,” they mentioned this week.

“I got him his first job — in construction — when he got out of prison,” a household good friend who solely recognized himself as Izzy mentioned Thursday. “He at all times saved a job. We celebrated pay days collectively. He’d come to my residence and we did a little bit celebration.

“One of my close friends saw him the night before it happened,” he mentioned. “He feels guilty. He said he could have prevented it if he had only taken him for a walk. I told him, ‘No, you didn’t know.’”

Kaseem Stukes was arrested in May and charged with reckless endangerment and unlawful weapons possession for an incident within the Bronx in September 2024, court docket data present.

According to prosecutors, the case was introduced to a grand jury, which did not indict Stukes on the fees. Records present he was due again in court docket on the day of the mass capturing.

The NYPD has recognized all the victims however has not singled out Kaseem Stukes because the shooter — however regulation enforcement sources advised The Post he was the one believed to have pulled the set off.

“We all used to meet here,” Angomas mentioned exterior the constructing on Thursday. “We’d go to his  mom’s home, get a bag of chips.  She would feed us, give us a few {dollars}.

“We were all trying to make it out of the ‘hood,’” he added. “We all make our own life choices.”

Additional reporting by Amanda Woods.