In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, a tragic scene unfolded inside an apartment on Gates Avenue. A 38-year-old woman, Felicita Sotillo, was discovered unconscious and unresponsive, having sustained a fatal gunshot wound to her head. Her life was abruptly ended in what authorities would soon describe as a grim and violent encounter.
Beside her lay the body of her 41-year-old boyfriend, who also had a fatal gunshot wound to the
head. Investigators from the New York City Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a woman shot at the location shortly after midnight on October 5, 2016. Upon their arrival, both Felicita and the man were pronounced dead at the scene.
Evidence recovered from the apartment, including a firearm, led police to investigate the deaths as a murder-suicide. It is believed that Felicita's boyfriend shot her before turning the gun on himself. Neighbors remembered Felicita as a 'beautiful young lady' and a devoted mother to two young children, with whom she had been seen returning from church just the day before her death. As the investigation proceeded, the primary suspect in Felicita Sotillo's death was the man found deceased beside her, resulting in no arrests being made in the case.
