A Queens man accused of fatally shooting his mother and sister before an explosion tore through their Far Rockaway home had long unnerved people on the block, neighbors told The Post, describing him as a “ticking time bomb” with “something crazy about him.”
Kegan Thomas, 33, was shot and wounded by NYPD officers around noon Saturday during a chaotic confrontation that began after his terrified wife called 911, authorities said.
Police later discovered the bodies of 28-year-old Selena Ponce and 56-year-old Clemer Ponce — Thomas’ sister and mother — inside the family’s Ocean Crest Boulevard home.
“There was something crazy about him,” neighbor John White said. “I always saw that twinkle in his eye. He was just never normal. I always avoided conversations with him.”
“When I said, ‘Hi,’ he would give me a thousand-yard stare,” White added.
Thomas, who remained hospitalized in critical condition and had not been formally charged, allegedly erupted Saturday while wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a shotgun inside the Queens home, police said.
As members of the NYPD Emergency Services Unit arrived, an explosion went off inside the house. Officers then entered and repeatedly ordered the armed suspect to drop the weapon, authorities said.
“Officers issued numerous verbal commands for the subject to put his hands up so he could drop the weapon,” NYPD Assistant Chief Christopher McIntosh told reporters during a Saturday briefing.
“After failing to comply with repeat commands to put his hands up and still armed [with] the shotgun, officers discharged their weapons and struck the suspect,” McIntosh said.
White said he heart Thomas screaming during the encounter with police.
“He was screaming things like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna kill everybody. ‘I’m gonna kill the block. I’m killing them all.’”
White said loud fights were common inside the Thomas home, and in one instance he said he even spotted the suspected killer climbing in through a window before another loud tirade.
“Every day in taht house there was a lot of domestic violence going on,” the neighbor said. “I just kept hearing them screaming at each other.
“He was a real weirdo.”
Police said Monday that Thomas remained in critical condition.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
