A man was shot and killed inside a Central Islip rooming house on Tuesday afternoon, making him the third victim to be gunned down in less than two days in the same community, Suffolk County police said.
Officers responded to a report of shots fired at a house on Clayton Avenue where they found the victim dead of multiple gunshot wounds at 2:30 p.m., police said. The victim, 25-year-old Matthew Gilmore, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I don’t see that this case is related to the other cases,” Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Homicide Squad, told reporters outside the crime scene, which is adjacent to a convent. He said the first two cases may be linked.
That shooting occurred shortly after Keenan Russell died at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore about 12 hours following he was found suffering from gunshot wounds on Acorn Avenue approximately two miles from his Central Islip home at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Twenty five hours prior to the second deadly shooting, Derrick Mayes was found dead of a gunshot wound to the abdomen on Wilson Avenue, about a mile from his Central Islip home, at 11:35 p.m. Sunday, police said.
The first two victims were both 21 years old. Police have not made any arrests.
Homicide Squad detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information about these murders to call them at 631-852-6392 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
