In the last hour of 2017, in a brick duplex with a plastic snowman out front, a 16-year-old boy from what seemed to be a happy family picked up a semiautomatic rifle and killed his mother, father, sister and a family friend, New Jersey officials said.
The boy is too young to be named by those who arrested him, although he may be tried as an adult. He is expected to be charged with four counts of murder and will appear in court Tuesday, according to NJ.com.
In the meantime, friends and relatives are struggling to reconcile the massacre with their conception of the Kologi family — large, loving and “picturesque,” as described by the Asbury Park Press.
They had seen their troubles, of course. Nearly a decade ago, Steven and Linda Kologi had filed for bankruptcy, the Press reported. But by 2017, they were still living in the same Long Branch duplex, and even prospering in some ways.
The couple, in their early 40s, had four children, according to the Press. NJ.com wrote that 18-year-old Brittany — killed along with her parents — had recently finished her first semester at Stockton University, about an hour down the coast.
As for Steven, the father — “my God, he’d do anything for his kids,” a friend named Ronnie Pacheco told the Press. Steven Kologi had once worked as a postal worker, and now took on a multitude of jobs and shifts to bring in the paychecks.
“Some midnight to 9 in the morning,” Pacheco said. “He did everything and anything to support his family.”
Friends knew Linda Kologi as a doting mother, New York’s CBS affiliate reported. The whole family would often come into the Welsh Farms convenience store across the street, NJ.com wrote. Linda always looked happy and often bought a lottery ticket.
In warm weather on Sundays, the Press reported, the family would often show up at a local softball field. They looked happy there, too.
The 16-year-old, some said, had gone through his own troubles. Kids used to tease him in elementary school, family friend Veronica Mass told NJ.com. He had a learning disability and his grades at the time were poor.
His parents started home-schooling him a few years ago, Mass said, and the boy seemed to improve. “He learned to read, did his math,” Mass said. He became a friendly, funny teenager. “He would tell jokes.”
On the night of Dec. 31, 2017, Brittany was visiting from college and the Kologis were gathered at home. The boy’s grandfather was there, as was a friend, 70-year-old Mary Shultz.
Also in the duplex, according to the Monmouth County prosecutor, was a Century Arms semiautomatic rifle belonging to a family member.
James Roskowinski happened to be across the street about 11:45 p.m. He told the Press that he might have mistaken the pops he heard for fireworks — except that he also saw lights flash in the living room window and knew at once this was no celebration.
“Pop, pop, pop, pop,” Roskowinski said.
Someone inside the duplex called 911. Before the year was over, police were lined up outside the Welsh Farms store where Linda Kologi had once bought lottery tickets, and lights and sirens filled the street.
The grandfather and the boy’s brother were able to flee the duplex. Police said nothing of the boy’s arrest, except that it was uneventful.
Steven, Linda and Brittany Kologi and Mary Shultz all lay dead inside the home.
“We are investigating this and are confident that it’s a domestic incident,” prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said at a news conference. “It’s completely isolated.”
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January 02, 2018
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