Queens man accused of killing his mom went ‘off the grid’ days earlier, dad says
A Queens ex-con accused of fatally shooting his mother went “off the grid” and started behaving strangely about a week before the killing, the suspect’s father told the Daily News.
Dashawn Coggins’ dad said he’d tried to warn his family members, including his ex-wife — murder victim Natalie Coggins — to be careful around her son, but they didn’t take the warnings seriously.
“He was going off the grid and I guess she didn’t take it serious, you know?” said the 53-year-old father, who identified himself only as Mr. Phillip. “He just started talking crazy, talking and saying delusional stuff.”
Dashawn Coggins, 36, shot his 61-year-old mother in the head in her home on 121st Ave. near Long St. about 9:30 p.m. on March 29, police said.
Witnesses said Coggins drove off shortly before his mother’s body was discovered. Police found him in Brooklyn a few hours later and recovered the murder weapon, cops said.
Coggins was charged with his mother’s murder. He was also hit with menacing charges for a March 22 incident in which he pulled a gun on 46-year-old Latasha Straughter after a bizarre months-long feud stemming from the man’s claim he owned the house she lives in.
Straughter, her husband and their five children rented a house in Hollis near the corner of 194th St. and100th Ave. in August. Days later, the woman says Coggins showed up at her doorstep.
“The day we moved in here he was walking up and down the driveway saying, ‘This is my house,'” Straughter told the Daily News. “‘Why are you moving in here?’ He said he owned the property. It was really crazy.”
Straughter consulted with her landlord, who recognized Coggins as a former tenant who was still receiving mail at the address.
“Another time he came with his mother,” said Straughter. “We had this argument with him and his mother not to have his mail delivered here.”
The clash came to a head nearly seven months after Coggins first showed up at the house — located around the block from where his father lives — when he pulled a gun on Straughter.
“He said, ‘I’m going to kill you all, I’m going to shoot this s–t up,” Straughter recalled. “I called the cops immediately but by then, he was gone.”
Coggins remained held without bail after his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on March 31. His Queens Defenders lawyer declined to comment Monday.
Public records show Coggins served almost three years in prison for a 2017 weapon possession conviction. He was released to parole in March 2020 and his parole ended that October.
Mourners flocked to Facebook to offer condolences after Natalie Coggins’ killing, remembering her as a community volunteer and a caring woman.
She was particularly active in the Queens County Section of the National Council of Negro Women, according to the group’s Facebook page.
“She was a Life Member and played a major role in the Queens County Section as chair of the Community Service and Thanksgiving Basket Committee,” reads an April 1 post by the group. “Please, keep the Coggins family in your prayers. Natalie will truly be missed.”
Dashawn Coggins’ father recalled his former wife as a “nice person.”
“She was a good person. That’s all,” he said. “It’s a tough time right now.”
He said he last spoke to Dashawn Coggins about a week before the murder.
“Something triggered and he went off the grid,” the father said, adding that Coggins never acted violently toward him.
“No. He never got like that with me. Only when he was around his mother, he’d be violent and yelling and cursing and stuff like that,” he said.
“I used to tell the kids … you got to tell your mother about Dashawn. They said, yeah, but she’s not taking it serious,” the dad said.
When asked if he hoped a jury would take his son’s mental state into consideration, he said, “No. He end up in jail, he end up in jail. That’s it.”
With Rocco Parascandola
