A man and woman were shot to death in a suspected murder-suicide Thursday that has rattled a typically peaceful Staten Island community, police and stunned residents said.
Police flocked to a quiet cul-de-sac on Garth Court near Corona Ave. in Richmondtown after shots rang out inside the man’s home about 11:10 a.m., cops said.
“I saw the police rushing, and police never rush here because it’s a very quiet neighborhood,” Dan Melkumyan, who lives near the scene, told the Daily News.
NYPD detectives believe the man shot his girlfriend, then turned the gun on himself, police sources said.
“This is the shock,” Melkumyan said. “I have a three-year-old and every day we walk here.”
When cops arrived, they found a 39-year-old Dana Foley shot in the chest and her 27-year-old boyfriend, Dakota Suckstorff, shot in the head. A gun was recovered near the man’s body, police said.
Foley died at the scene. Medics rushed Suckstorff to Staten Island University Hospital North, but he could not be saved.
Police investigate after a shooting on Garth Court in Staten Island on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (Rose Abuin / New York Daily News) Show Caption1 of 2Police investigate after a shooting on Garth Court in Staten Island on Thursday. (Rose Abuin / New York Daily News)Expand
A neighbor who first thought he heard fireworks returned later to see medics taking Suckstorff out of the home on a gurney.
“They rolled him out. There was no way he was surviving that,” he said. “He did not look awake.”
The shooting shocked locals in the quiet, tree-lined community nestled between two cemeteries.
“I can open my car. I can keep my car open with trunk and everything for the whole night, and nothing’s gonna happen. You can leave anything, and nothing ever gets stolen,” Melkumyan said. “I don’t know how to feel (about the shooting). It’s crazy.”
“This is very, very out of the ordinary in here,” said a 75-year-old longtime local, who would only identify himself as Dominick. “You may hear people arguing over parking space or something, but nothing of this nature has happened here, where there’s been a murder committed.”
It was not immediately clear whether the NYPD had been to the address previously to quell any arguments or fights between the two, officials said.
The shooting marked the third murder in Staten Island this year. This time last year, only two homicides had been committed, according to NYPD statistics.
One of the prior killings happened on July 2 when Kycell Terry was stabbed to death by 50-year-old Jonathan Griffin inside a building on Ann St. near Park Ave. in Port Richmond.
Terry, 25, was stabbed by Griffin during an argument over a woman they both knew, police sources said.
Griffin was arrested for the killing on Monday, charged with murder, weapon possession, and criminal contempt for violating an order of protection, police said.