New Jersey teenager, 16, slaughters parents and sibling with rifle, others escape attack

Scott Kologi, a 16-year-old teenager resided in the New Jersey city of Long Branch, has been taken into police custody for allegedly murdering his family members with a semi-automatic rifle on New Years Eve.

The motivation behind the killing of the victims who consist of his parents, 44-year-old father, Steven Kologi; mother, Linda Kologi, 42; sister, Brittany Kologi, 18; and family friend Mary Schultz, 70, is yet to be determined.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni disclosed in a statement that the troubled youth was unable to launch an attack against two other family members comprising of his grandfather and brother.

The pair were able to escape danger at their residence located at 635 Wall Street.

“It’s a terribly tragic incident,” said Gramiccioni concerning the slaughter which has ensured that Scott face a four-count charge of murder and a weapons offense on Monday, January 1, 2017.

According to reports, the tragic incident was the first time the police has responded to calls relating to violence at the home of the deceased.

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Despite the shock that has welcomed the gruesome murder, Joe Rios, 52, described the killer as "the nicest kid in the world" in a chat with the New York Post.

“He came to watch the softball games with Linda and he was always smiling. This is totally out of the blue,"

“This is not something I ever thought this young boy would do. I don’t know what happened. He was not a violent kid. He was always smiling,” Rios added while expressing how baffled he was concerning the attack.

Here are what psychologists are saying about the murder

Kathleen Heide, a University of South Florida professor who has two published books on family killings considers the murder a less frequent incident.

"Based on the research that’s been done in the field, you’re looking, at most, one case a year," Heide who has spent decades studying cases in which people kill their family members said concerning the recent homicide.

Mario Garrett, a professor of gerontology at San Diego State University however thinks parricide has become the new wave in respect to the issue of crime in the United States of America. “Children killing their parents is the fastest growing type of family homicide,” he wrote in a Psychology Today report.

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In Nigeria, youths have made a desire for money the chief reason why they kill their parents. Prosper, a 24-year-old man is one in a list of people who have attempted this.

During an interrogation conducted by the police, the suspect who was caught with dresses belonging to his folks confessed that he planned to use them for money rituals.