41-year-old Boujeke Kenmoe has been charged with second-degree murder in the strangling death of his child, whom he killed in what appears to have been a botched murder-suicide. The New York Times reports that Kenmoe called 911 on Sunday night and told the dispatcher that, “His wife had left him, and now he believed that he and his 8-year-old son were better off dead.” By the time the police arrived at the family’s home in Fresh Meadows, the boy was already dead, while Kenmoe was bleeding from self-inflicted wounds on his wrists. The Kenmoes’ landlord, Abed Islam, told the New York Daily News that the father was “a good guy,” though he could frequently be heard having “verbal and very loud” arguments with his wife. However, the Times reports that Kenmoe, who is still recovering in the hospital, had never been arrested before, and that the family had never been visited by child services or the cops.
