‘Daddy came to my birthday and started shooting people’

by Leigh Egan

A young girl hid in a closet, petrified as her father shot down her mother and sisters, according to police. While hiding, she made a heartbreaking call to 911, pleading for help for her family.

New York Post reports that Joseph McCrimons, 46, is accused of killing Rasheeda Barzey (the girl’s mother), and Barzey’s two other children, identified as Chloe Spears, 16, and Solei Spears, 20. After shooting the victims, the suspect put the gun to his head and shot himself.

The incident happened in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood on Monday night, where a birthday party was being held for the suspect’s little girl, 9. KTLA 5 reports that McCrimons had been in a relationship with Barzey for 20 years.

Authorities said there were no prior 911 calls and no record of domestic violence between the pair. However, a neighbor said that when the pair argued, “it was really bad.

“Last night, there were no words, no argument. Just ‘pop, pop,’ and after the first pop, she started wailing. Then there was three more, and there was silence,” the neighbor told the Post.

On Tuesday, YPD Chief of Detectives James Essig recounted the “heartbreaking” 911 call the 9-year-old made.

“She was just calling 911, you know, if you can imagine, it’s horrific, the 911, saying, ‘Daddy was coming over for my birthday, and he shot people…And she was weeping and crying [that she] ‘didn’t have presents.’ It was heartbreaking to hear that. We found her hidden in a closet.”

McCrimons had a lengthy criminal record including a 2003 manslaughter conviction.

“I know he was always a little bit off,” Barzey’s brother-in-law, Hasley Derosena, said. “He had a temper. He was not an abusive person. He had a mental illness. He was hospitalized before. He tried to kill himself, but nothing like this.”

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