Indian American Family in Queens Devastated by Murder-Suicide That Killed Two Brothers
- Karamjit Multani, 33, killed his 27-year-old brother Vipanpal Multani and shot his mother in the stomach, before turning the gun on himself in Queens, N.Y.
An Indian American family in Queens, New York, is reeling from a shocking murder-suicide that killed two brothers. The incident occurred on June 7, when Karamjit Multani, 33, shot dead his 27-year-old brother Vipanpal Multani and shot his mother in the stomach, before turning the gun on himself.
What seemed like a quiet evening of pizza for the family turned into a nightmare as Karamjit entered Vipanpal’s room and shot him without warning, father Bhupinder Multani told CBS News. They said 33-year-old Karamjit was married with three young kids, financially sound, and showed no signs of aggression toward his family. Further, they said they had no idea he had a gun.
As the shooting was going on, Bhupinder Multani told the Daily News that he “escaped and ran to the house of a neighbor, who called 911. That neighbor “entered the house to find Vipanpal Multani shot and pleading for help,” the report added. “He told me, ‘Please, don’t let me die,'” the neighbor said. “He died in my hands later.”
Family members spoke to the Daily News yesterday (June 9), and shared details of the gruesome murder. Some of them speculated if the murder was pre-planned. Bhupinder Multani told the Daily News that though “he didn’t see any signs of anger, depression or instability” in his eldest son, he thinks Karamjit “planned the attack and intended to wipe out everyone in the house. He wanted to kill me. He wanted to kill my wife. He wanted to kill my son.”
He also told the publication that on the morning of the rampage, Karamjit sent his wife and children ages 1, 2, and 4, to her home state of Indiana, “because he feared he’d wanted to kill them too.” “Why would he send them out of nowhere,” Karamjit and Vipanpal’s brother-in-law Jaspreet Singh wondered. “Whenever they go, they always go together.”
Singh is married to Jasprit and Vipanpal’s sister. His wife is “the middle child in the family, he told the Daily News, adding that “she lost both of her brothers in one night.” “She’s so close with their younger brother and the older one,” he said of his wife. The parents are grieving as well. “Somebody who lost two sons, how do I feel?” Bhupinder told the Daily News. “I can’t explain. I lost everything.”
The brothers shared a two-story brick house in the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens and had separate bedrooms. Recalling that fateful night, Bhupinder Multani told the Daily News that Karamjit first went into his and his wife’s room first. When he didn’t find his bother there, he went into Vipanpal’s room and started shooting with two guns, Singh added. “So my father-in-law came from the back and grabbed him,” he told the publication. Even if the parents managed to snatch both the guns, his son had “yet another weapon tucked in his waistband,” Bhupinder Multani said.
When his wife tried to shield Vipanpal during the shooting, she suffered a gunshot wound to the torso. She was Medics took the 52-year-old mother to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition.
Bhupinder said he “kept a hold on his son until he was able to shove him out the front door,” Once outside, Karamjit went in his car and changed his clothes, he said, adding that “when cops arrived, he ran behind the house, jumped a fence, then shot himself in the head in front of a house on 95th Avenue.”
What was more shocking and confusing was that the brothers had been close, Singh said, adding that they worked with their father in finance. The two brothers had “occasional little arguments,” he continued, but were “best friends” who “never raised a hand” against each other,” he noted. “Honestly, we’re confused ourselves,” he continued.. “It was a happy family. We were always hanging out together, making jokes, videos.” Karamjit’s behavior was “ just out of nowhere,” he said. “I don’t know what was going on in his mind to act out like this.”
(Top photos: Multani family photos).