Three people have been killed in a suspected murder-suicide in Mount Vernon, officials said Sunday.

City officials said it is likely that a man killed his wife and daughter and then took his own life Sunday morning on West Fourth Street. The shooter was among the three victims.

The residence is located across the street from the Doles Center. Police tape is extended onto the center's property.

Michel Richard Sylvain, who identified himself as the brother of the suspected shooter, said he came to the scene and that police wouldn't let him in.

Sylvain said he was able to speak with a woman who lived upstairs. She told Sylvain that she heard yelling and screaming, but could not decipher what they were saying.

"She went to check" and couldn't "understand what they're talking about and she went back upstairs,” according to an account given to Sylvain by the woman.

City officials would not identify the shooter or his wife and daughter as notification of relatives continued. Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said on her weekly program "Sundays With Shawyn" that the father was “under major duress”.

She did not elaborate but told The Journal News/lohud later that, while there were no reports of domestic violence at the home, he was stressed and challenged over personal issues according to relatives and colleagues.

“This has definitely sent our community reeling,” she said on the show.

The girl was a pre-teen and a Mount Vernon public school student.

Appearing on the mayor’s show, schools Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton said the school community was “devastated” and that the girl’s classmates and teachers have been connected with grief counselors.

“Under normal circumstances this is a difficult thing to bear,” he said. “But on top of trying to get our students to cope with the effects of Covid-19 and their lives being disrupted and learning this new normal, and now to add this level of personal, intimate grief on top of that it’s not easy for our children.”

He said the killing hit him especially hard because the victim, whom he called a “leader”, had reached out to him by email just days ago, inquiring whether he could meet with her class in a Zoom session to discuss issues related to their distance learning.

Staff writer Jonathan Bandler contributed to this report

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