Victim Jessica Mera with her two kids in the local bodega before the shooting (screenshot); Mera (Facebook); Former Officer Kevin Canty (Facebook)
Yesterday, a former NYPD officer was arrested for allegedly fatally shooting his wife in front of their two small children in Queens. Former officer Kevin Canty, 43, has been accused of killing his wife, 40-year-old Jessica Mera. Friends and neighbors told the News that the couple fought a lot, and Canty would often threaten his wife. “He told more than one person—’I’m gonna kill this bitch one day,'” said 22-year-old Shanique Varlack. “Everybody is just so distraught. He’s a cop. He’s supposed to protect us. He took an oath and now? He’s a murderer. She did not deserve to die.”
Canty allegedly shot Mera inside the couple’s home on 104th Street near 101st Avenue in Ozone Park just before 11 a.m. Saturday. Their two kids, a 4-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy, were in the house at the time. “The boy told me personally: ‘My dad shot my mom and there’s blood all over,'” a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous told the News. “My wife heard gunshots and the kids were running out on the street. They were banging on car doors as cars were passing by. They were trying to get help, someone to listen to them.”
Canty was a Manhattan transit cop before retiring last year with a disability; he was previously praised by the NYPD on Facebook for his part in saving the life of a man who suffered a heart attack at the Union Square subway station in July 2012.
“He’s kind of a scary guy, kind of intimidating. You got to talk to him for him to talk to you,” said neighbor Danny Ali. “He told me he was a detective. About a year ago, I saw he had a broken hand. He said he broke it in a fight. He wouldn’t say more about it.”
“They were always fighting. They’d fight outside, they would fight everywhere,” said neighbor Joanne Bagley. “They were not a happy couple. I guess it was inevitable.”
The News adds that Canty repeatedly banged his head against the inside of a squad car window after he was arrested. “They are going through a really tough time right now,” someone who identified himself as Mera’s friend told them. “You have no idea what this family has been through — this is only the tip of the iceberg.”
h/t – gothamist
