On a tragic Tuesday morning in Brooklyn, the life of 32-year-old Celina Ramos was violently cut short in what was determined to be a murder-suicide. The incident unfolded on a Bushwick sidewalk around 7:30 a.m., shocking neighbors and leaving a family devastated. The man responsible was her 41-year-old boyfriend, Gabriel Sanchez.
The events of that morning were the culmination of a domestic dispute that had started the previous night.
Following a heated argument at Ramos's Williamsburg apartment, Sanchez left, and despite her grandmother's pleas to stay home, Ramos followed him. The next morning, the conflict escalated horrifically on Jefferson Avenue near Knickerbocker Avenue. Witnesses reported hearing a woman screaming for her life as Sanchez chased her down the street. Surveillance footage captured the moment he grabbed her from behind and shot her in the head.
Immediately after shooting Ramos, Sanchez turned the gun on himself. He first shot himself in the neck, and when that didn't prove fatal, he fired a second, fatal shot to his head. Emergency services arrived to a grim scene. Both Ramos and Sanchez were transported to local hospitals, she to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and he to Woodhull Hospital, where both were pronounced dead. Police recovered a firearm at the location.
Family and friends remember Ramos as a hardworking and cherished young woman who had recently begun a new job with the Department of Education and was lovingly dedicated to supporting her grandmother. In the wake of the tragedy, it was revealed that Sanchez had a troubled history, including nine prior arrests. Just weeks before the murder-suicide, he had been arrested for stalking and harassing an ex-girlfriend, against whom he had reportedly made threats. Because Sanchez took his own life, there were no arrests or a trial for the death of Celina Ramos.
