Months before a Bronx man allegedly stabbed four relatives to death at a home in Far Rockaway on Sunday and was fatally shot by police responding to the scene, he refused help for severe mental health issues identified by his family, his aunt and cousin said Monday.
Bronx resident Lillian McKoy said her nephew Courtney Gordon — the 38-year-old police named as the suspect in the grisly domestic slaying at 467 Beach 22nd St. — exhibited alarming behavior earlier this year, leading his mother and sister to reach out to mental health professionals to take him into treatment.
“But he, in turn, reversed it and began to tell them they’re the ones that need help, he is fine,” McKoy said in the living room of her Eastchester apartment. “He refused to go.”
Officers responding to a 911 call around 5 a.m. Sunday found Gordon exiting the Far Rockaway home with luggage, and when they approached him, he stabbed two of them with a knife, according to the NYPD. One of the officers then shot Gordon, who later died from his injuries, police said.
The victims had not been identified as of early Monday afternoon. They included an 11-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old woman and a man in his 30s — all deceased — as well as a 61-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds who remained in critical condition at a hospital, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
The injured officers were transported to a hospital and were expected to recover, the police union said Sunday.
McKoy said Gordon had stayed at her apartment for a few months this past year and she sometimes feared for her safety around her nephew, who became easily enraged. “I just did not like his demeanor, the way he looked at me and the attitude,” she added. “If someone resents you that much, you don’t know what will happen.”
She said she had opened her home to Gordon because her sister — Gordon’s mother — was already living there. According to McKoy, he had been living elsewhere with his wife and…
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