Off-duty NY hospital security officer killed during domestic violence incident
ELLENVILLE, N.Y. Jan 13 2018 A member of the Village Board who also was a 30-year employee of the Ellenville school district fatally shot his longtime domestic partner and a man she was dating, then took his own life, the village police chief said Thursday.
Efrain “Ping” Lopez, 55, killed Margarita Soto and Jose Cruz, both also 55, about 9:55 a.m. Thursday outside the Canal Lock apartments at 110 Center St., Chief Philip Mattracion said during an afternoon press conference. Lopez then killed himself, the chief said.
Mattracion said Lopez, Soto and Cruz all lived in Ellenville. He gave Lopez’s address as 174 Center St. The chief said Cruz’s son might live at the apartment complex where the killings occurred.
Mattracion said Lopez got out of the black sedan he was driving and Cruz got out of the red car he was driving, and Lopez fatally shot Cruz with a 30-30 lever-action rifle. Lopez then fatally shot Soto through the passenger-side window of the red car and then turned the rifle on himself, the chief said. Mattracion did not say how many shots Lopez fired at Cruz and Soto.
All three were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.
The chief said Lopez and Soto were “longtime domestic partners” and that Soto, who he said might have been living out of town for the past several months, started dating Cruz recently. Mattracion said investigators who spoke to witnesses learned Lopez “wasn’t happy about the situation.”
The chief said village police had no reports of domestic problems involving any of the three but that his department was checking with other agencies in the area about reports that might have been filed with them. He said the shooting “occurred as a result of an ongoing domestic dispute.”
Mattracion said investigators had not found a suicide note and there was “no indication this was going to occur.”
The chief said Ellenville police were being assisted in the investigation by state police and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright was at the shooting scene Thursday, but he declined to comment.
Mattracion, who also is president of the Ellenville Board of Education, said Lopez worked for the school district for 30 years and that he had known him for about that long. Lopez was a janitor for the district, the chief said.
“In a thousand years, if you had told me I’d be responding to this thing, I would have told you you were all crazy,” Mattracion said at the afternoon press conference.
Addressing about a dozen reporters gathered in the police station parking lot, Mattracion said Lopez “was just a very nice guy. He’s always been polite, courteous. There was no indication that this would ever transpire.”
Lopez served on the Village Board in 1990, then was appointed to return the board in 2003, was elected in 2004 and had been a member ever since. He last was elected this past November.
Ellenville Village Manager Joe Stoeckeler said he’d known Lopez and Cruz for some time and expressed “shock and disbelief” at the killings.
“It’s just horrible,” he said by phone late Thursday afternoon. “It’s tragic. I feel bad for all of the people involved.”
Stoeckeler said he known Lopez for about 30 years and Cruz for about 10, but that he didn’t know Soto. He described the two men as “good fathers.”
Stoeckeler said Lopez had two adult children — a daughter who lives in the village and a son who works for the village — and that Cruz had a son in his late teens or early 20s.
Cruz worked as a security guard at Ellenville Regional Hospital, Stoeckeler said.
“Nobody knew anything was happening” between the three that would have led to Thursday’s shootings, he said. “People who worked with [Lopez] and saw him on a daily basis … didn’t see it coming.”
“It’s just horrible,” Stoeckeler said. “I feel horrible for Jose and his son and everybody involved.”
Ellenville schools were placed in lockdown after the shootings because police initially believed a suspect was at large, Mattracion said. The lockdown was lifted just before 11 a.m. after it became clear the shooter was among the dead.
The school district canceled Thursday’s after-school activities and issued a statement that said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life.”
“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the friends and family of everyone involved,” the statement said.
The district said counseling was being arranged for any students or staff who needed it.
Late Thursday morning, Josh Christensen stood on the sidewalk outside the Shadowland Theatre at 157 Canal St. in Ellenville, where he is technical director. He said employees of the theater were advised by police after the shootings to stay inside with the door locked.
“It’s scary when you hear something like that,” Christensen said, adding it seemed police had the situation under control within 15 minutes of the initial call.
Luis Membremo, owner of the Columbian Deli on Canal Street in the village, said he was inside his business early Thursday and closed for a short period after police told him what had happened.
Luis Gijon, owner of the Cattleman’s Grill at 150 Canal St., called the shootings “scary and sad.”
Armando Rodriguez, owner of Arod’s Barber Shop at 95 Canal St., said he, too, was sad to hear about the killings.
“My sleepy little town is not so sleepy anymore,” he said.
Rodriguez said he didn’t know the people involved and that his first concern was about his three teenage children, all of whom attend Ellenville High School. He said they all called him soon after the lockdown was put in place to let him know they were OK.
During the lockdown, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office stressed there was “no intruder in any of the Ellenville Central School District buildings.”
