In the early hours of a Sunday in October 1991, a tragic and violent series of events unfolded in a home in the Little Neck section of Queens, New York, claiming the life of 23-year-old Daniel Gantovnik. The rampage began around 2:20 a.m. when a man identified as Andrew Brooks Jr., 47, opened fire inside the house where he lived with his father.
Police were summoned to the residence shortly after 2 a.m. and discovered a horrifying scene.
Inside the house, they found the bodies of Daniel Gantovnik and 27-year-old Michael Zarabi. Two other young men, Andrew Lazan, 22, and Stanley Sultan, 25, were found critically wounded by gunfire. The horror extended to the backyard, where the bodies of Brooks's 75-year-old father, Andrew Brooks Sr., and 30-year-old Brian Ducker were discovered in a shed. Authorities believed they may have been killed days earlier. The body of Brooks's mother, Marion, was also later found.
Following the shootings, Brooks fled the scene and traveled approximately two miles to a house in Great Neck, Long Island, where he took a couple hostage. After a tense standoff with police, the male hostage was released, and his wife managed to escape. As law enforcement surrounded the home and attempted to negotiate, Brooks took the phone off the hook.
The following day, after unsuccessful attempts to re-establish contact, police used a camera to look into an upstairs window and discovered that the suspect had taken his own life. Andrew Brooks Jr. died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head from the same sawed-off rifle used in the killings. Neighbors reportedly referred to the perpetrator as 'Crazy Andy.'
