{"id":369310,"date":"2026-10-09T22:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369310\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T22:16:11","slug":"queens-man-suspected-of-killing-girlfriend-before-leaping-off-7-story-building-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369310\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens man suspected of killing girlfriend before leaping off 7-story building dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens man suspected of stabbing his girlfriend<\/a> to death before leaping from the roof of their seven-story building died in the hospital, cops<\/a> said Friday.<\/p>\n

Austin Wescott, 32, died at Mt. Sinai South Nassau<\/a> on Oct. 3, police said. In addition to injuries from the fall, he had self-inflicted slash wounds on his wrists, ankles and torso, according to a police source.<\/p>\n

He was the sole suspect in the death of his girlfriend, Pheona Premraj, 31, police said.<\/p>\n

Wescott was covered in blood, standing on the roof of his Neilson St. apartment building near Dinsmore Ave. in Far Rockaway when police arrived around 11:50 a.m. on Sept. 30, cops said.<\/p>\n

The officers attempted to talk him down, but he jumped, plunging seven stories.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Julian Roberts-Grmela \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Police investigate the day after Pheona Premraj was fatally stabbed inside this apartment building on Neilson St. near Dinsmore Ave. in Far Rockaway, Queens, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (Julian Roberts-Grmela \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Inside his apartment, cops found Premraj\u2019s lifeless body. She had been stabbed in the face, neck, chest and abdomen. The knife used to kill her was found next to her.<\/p>\n

Medics rushed Wescott to Mt. Sinai South Nassau in critical condition. Police never had an opportunity to question him due to his condition, and he was never charged in Premraj\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

A law enforcement source said the stabbing took place during a domestic assault. The couple shared the apartment.<\/p>\n

A 64-year-old neighbor said the couple could often be heard arguing inside their apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they first moved in, they were good. But then three years ago, that\u2019s when the fighting started,\u201d said the neighbor, who asked that her name be withheld. \u201cHe asked her to leave almost three years ago. I heard him say, \u2018You need to go,\u2019 and she says, \u2018No, I\u2019m not going nowhere.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cops confirmed that within the last three years they had been called by neighbors as many as six times to quell \u201cfamily disputes\u201d between the couple. No arrests were made during any of those visits to their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real bad part of the fighting started about a year ago,\u201d the neighbor added. \u201cThe day of the incident, I didn\u2019t hear anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described the victim\u2019s boyfriend as \u201cpolite,\u201d saying he \u201cused to hold the elevator door open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man suspected of stabbing his girlfriend to death before leaping from the roof of their seven-story…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[136376,136378,3290,136375,9951,9,24,63,103,136377,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-369310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-austin-wescott","tag-building-leap","tag-domestic-violence","tag-fatal-fall","tag-fatal-stabbing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-pheona-premraj","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}