N.Y.C. Grandma Arrives to Babysit Toddler and Discovers Whole Family Slain in Murder-Suicide

KC Baker
Updated

A horror-stricken grandmother came home Wednesday to find an entire family — including her 1-year-old granddaughter — shot to death in a triple murder-suicide in Brooklyn, multiple outlets report.

Police believe that Terrance Briggs, 27, shot his stepfather, Loyd Drain Jr., 57, his stepbrother, Loyd Drain III, 16, and then his daughter, Laylay, 1, before turning the gun on himself, the New York Times reports.

The grandmother, Patricia Green, 53, who is Briggs’ mother and Loyd Drain Jr.’s wife, came upon the grisly scene when she arrived home at the Brownsville apartment at 5 a.m. to babysit the toddler, local station WPIX reports.

At approximately 5 a.m., police responded to a 911 call about unconscious people inside an apartment in a Brownsville building, the New York City Police Department said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Upon arrival, officers found four people “unconscious and unresponsive, with gunshot wounds to the head,” the statement, which identifies the deceased, said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police found a firearm at the location, the statement says.

• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Officials from the medical examiner's office head to the Brooklyn apartment where four people were found shot to death
Officials from the medical examiner's office head to the Brooklyn apartment where four people were found shot to death

• For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

“We do not have a motive for this incident, but we are working very hard to establish one,” NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Kemper said, according to ABC7. “I can say this, a firearm has been recovered inside the apartment, along with bullets and shell casings.”

Known as ‘Big Daddy, Drain Jr. and his wife would often cook for “anyone who was hungry,” neighbor Vanessa Swain told the Brownsville Patch.

“Patricia kept her family whole,” Swain told the outlet. “She loved her family beyond love. It breaks my heart to see him gone. They had a perfect marriage.”