Report: N.Y. man, 86, shot grandson over housing dispute

NEW YORK - An 86-year-old New York man shot his grandson in the head, killed the grandson's girlfriend and then took his own life because he believed the couple was taking advantage of his ailing daughter and living in her home, the grandson said in an interview published Sunday in the New York Daily News.

Michael Feliciano, 47, told the Daily News from his hospital bed that his girlfriend, Claritle Huerta, called him on his way home Friday evening to tell him that his grandfather, Heriberto Pagan, was there and wanted to talk to him.

"She called me and told me that he was there and he wanted to talk to me," Feliciano told The Daily News. "I said, 'I just got off the bus. I'll be right there. I love you.'"

Feliciano got to the Staten Island house minutes later.

"I opened the door," he told the newspaper, "and that was it."

Police said that Pagan shot Feliciano, killed Huerta, 28, with a gunshot to the head and then got in his car and drove a few blocks before turning the gun on himself. The grandfather, of Brooklyn, was found lying outside his car with a bullet wound in his head.

Feliciano, Huerta and their 4-month-old son were living in a Staten Island home owned by Feliciano's ailing mother, who had moved to Puerto Rico. Pagan felt the couple was taking advantage of her and encouraged his daughter to evict them, his grandson said.

The older man didn't accept his grandson's assurances that he had put drug problems behind him, Feliciano said.

"He wouldn't let go of the past," said Feliciano, who met Huerta in a rehabilitation program three years ago. "He's not one to forget."

Neighbors said grandson and grandfather clashed frequently.

"It was just yelling and shouting whenever they got together," John Reina said.

The couple's son was found unharmed inside the house after the shooting. The infant is now in the custody of Children's Services.