Neighbors at crime scene shocked at violence

Alexis Hansen was having coffee in the kitchen of her Patchogue home Friday morning when she heard a bang and what sounded like a woman's laugh.

Thinking someone was shooting at birds, she stepped out her front door and realized that her neighbor was screaming.

In the front yard of the house next door, an armed man was standing over the screaming woman's fiance, Arthur Ward, Hansen recalled.

"He had his left arm out and I saw him fire two shots right into the victim," said Hansen, 51.

From Central Islip to Patchogue to Farmingville, scenes of violence unfolded Friday as, police say, Genis Walker, 26, killed his girlfriend, his friend and then himself.

In Central Islip, yellow crime scene tape marked off the two-story house on Atlantic Street where, police say, Walker stabbed Jessica Hernandez, 22, at about 2:30 a.m.

Neighbor Joanne Johnson said she was shocked to see police cars light up her street. "It's shocking and scary to think that something like that could happen next door to you," she said.

In Patchogue, a bloodstain marked the ground where Ward was shot.

Hansen, who has three children, said she ran inside and dialed 911. "Thank God it was a Jewish holiday," she said, explaining that on a school day her children would have left the house at 8 a.m. to walk to their bus stop.

Police say Walker drove to Farmingville, where he shot himself and crashed his car.

Jason Pollizze, owner of Priority Fence on Horseblock Road in Farmingville, said he was in his store at about 8:45 a.m. when he heard what sounded like a firecracker.

He ran to his store window and opened the door just in time to see Walker's car crash into the building next door.

"There was this huge sound," Pollizze recalled. "It was the car hitting the wall."

Pollizze said he started toward the car to help the driver.

"In a split second, the cops were all over him and had guns drawn," he said.

Pollizze said he watched as police lifted Walker's body out of the car.