Man Murders Family, Turns Gun On Himself
By SASHA AUSTRIE
They stood on the fringes of the yellow police tape. Eyes and cameras zoomed in on the white house, neighbors stood in clusters speculating in hushed whispers. The rumors started to swirl.
The only thing known to be fact is that at about 7 a.m. Monday morning officers from the 105th Precinct responded to an emergency call at 145-50 230th Pl. The home held a grisly scene - four dead with gunshot wounds to the head. According to police officials and numerous published reports, Mark Bailey, a school bus driver for Nassau County, allegedly shot and killed his wife, Dionne Coy-Bailey, an assistant principal at Philip Randolph High School, and his two daughters Yolann, 19, and Yonique, 14.
According to the Queens DA's office, Bailey killed his family some time between Sunday night and Monday morning.
Stunned family members were outside the home where the Baileys were killed.
Rodney Colby stood with a group of men peering at the house. Colby said he heard one gun blast that morning while walking his niece to school. At the time of the blast Colby said he didn't flinch as he thought it was a neighborhood kid.
Colby, who dubs himself the neighborhood landscaper, said he'd at times cut grass for the Bailey family.
"He was a nice guy," Colby said of Bailey. "If you ever did know him you would have liked him."
Colby said police told him Bailey used a handgun to kill his family and then turned a shotgun on himself, though other reports pointed to the crime being carried out with an assault rifle.
Colby speculated that hard times had led to the tragedy.
"The economy is messed up," he said. "You have bills stacking up on people."
He added that Bailey probably got up with the intention of going to work and just "snapped."
"The cops don't have nobody to bring to justice," he said.
A woman who stared transfixed at the white house pointed a few houses down the street when asked where she lived.
"No," was her response when asked if she heard any shots. "The people [who lived in the basement] didn't even hear anything." Asked if she knew the family, "No," she responded.
She waited. She needed the bodies to be moved to get closure. From 11:30 a.m. until mid afternoon she stood on the sidewalk.
She crept closer to the yellow caution tape when the medical examiner's van backed into the driveway. At about 2:30 p.m. the first body bag was pushed out of the home. Word filtered through that it was the shooter.
A man on a cell phone nearby had these words: "If you want to kill yourself, kill yourself, but why kill the children? That is selfish."
A man who said he worked with Dionne's brother-in-law said the shootings happened Friday evening. He said "the bodies were stiff with rigor mortis." He said one of the sisters called Dionne on Saturday and received no response.
"They were very close," he said of the sister's relationship. "They spoke every day."
He said the bodies were discovered minutes before emergency personnel arrived at the scene.
"It was unbelievable," he said.
Dionne's co-worker and sister came to pick her up and, upon getting no response, called her brother-in-law.
According to published reports, a family friend peeked into an open window and saw one of the dead bodies.
"I looked in and saw someone under the covers," he is quoted as saying. "I reached in and felt a leg and felt it was kind of stiff."
The police returned to the scene and broke down the door and with that the investigation into the demise of the Bailey family began. Published reports state Bailey was found in the living room and his alleged victims were found in their beds. Also, there are reports that Bailey left a suicide note in the kitchen, saying "I am sorry. Love, Mark."
Reach Reporter Sasha Austrie at saustrie@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400 Ext. 123.