Keyriana Jiménez Rodríguez, an 18-year-old Dominican woman, was found dead in the early morning hours of April 1, 2026, inside a sixth-floor apartment on 84th Street near 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. What began, according to reports, as a late-night argument inside the apartment ended in gunfire and left Keyriana and her 20-year-old boyfriend dead before help could save either of them.
Police were called to the building shortly before 2:00 a.m.
after a neighbor and the young man’s 19-year-old brother, who was reportedly in another room, heard gunshots and called 911. When officers entered the apartment, they found Keyriana suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, torso, and abdomen. Her boyfriend was found with a single gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders pronounced both of them dead at the scene.
Investigators recovered a firearm and several shell casings inside the apartment. Early police findings pointed to a suspected murder-suicide connected to domestic violence, with authorities believing the boyfriend shot Keyriana and then killed himself. His name had not been released in the available reports, and officials were still withholding his identity pending family notification. No arrests were made, because the suspected shooter was also found dead at the scene.
People who lived in the building described the couple’s relationship as volatile. Neighbors told reporters they had heard frequent arguments between the two, saying the fights were loud enough to be heard throughout the building. In the moments before the shooting, witnesses reportedly heard another heated dispute, followed by multiple gunshots. Despite those accounts, reports indicated there had not been prior police calls to that apartment for domestic disputes involving the couple.
The news devastated Keyriana’s family and community in the Dominican Republic, especially in Villa Liberación, in the La Otra Banda area of Santiago, where relatives remembered her as affectionate, close to her family, and full of life. Her father, Kelvin Adrián Jiménez, said the loss was overwhelming for the family and that what he had learned suggested the tragedy began with an argument between the couple. Her grandmother, Adriana de la Cruz, remembered Keyriana as more like a daughter than a granddaughter, describing a close bond that made the loss even harder to bear.
Keyriana had reportedly moved to the United States with her mother in 2012, but her roots remained deeply tied to Santiago. After her death, relatives waited for her body to be returned to the Dominican Republic so they could mourn her at home. When her remains were later viewed in Santiago, family members and loved ones gathered in grief and used the moment to call attention to violence in relationships, urging people to seek help before conflict turns deadly.
As of the available reports, the case remained under investigation by New York authorities, but the publicly reported evidence centered on a suspected domestic murder-suicide. No additional suspects were named, no surviving suspect was being sought, and no charges or trial were expected unless investigators later uncovered evidence changing the understanding of what happened inside the Jackson Heights apartment.
