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Students return to school
FOX 5 NY’s Richard Giacovas takes a look at how the school is making sure students feel supported during this time.
ROCKLAND COUNTY - It was a difficult day back to school for some students in Rockland County after Clarkstown police found a family of four dead Saturday inside their New City home.
The two school communities are mourning the losses of 10-year-old Liam Morgan and his brother, 12-year-old Gabriel Morgan, who were killed over the holiday break in what's believed to be a murder-suicide by their father, Watson Morgan.
Police believe both brothers, along with their mother, Ornela Morgan, were shot and killed over the weekend by their father, a sergeant in the Bronxville (NY) Police Department, who then turned the gun on himself the day before New Year's Eve.
Clarkstown murder-suicide: Family of four found dead inside New City home
Clarkstown police found an officer, his wife and two young sons with gun-inflicted wounds inside their home on Saturday, in what they believe to be a murder-suicide.
Police went to perform a welfare check at the home when they found the family of four dead with gunshot wounds.
Clarkstown School Superintendent Marc P. Biacco visited both Felix V. Festa Middle School and Laurel Plains Elementary School to offer support for students, parents and teachers who knew Liam and Gabriel as student leaders.
"This will be a long, healing process for us," Biacco said. "As you would imagine, this is the deepest sense of grieving that a school community could possibly have. They were involved in Boy Scouts. They were involved in recreational sports. The parents were also very much involved in the students' lives."
The Felix V. Festa Middle School.
The boy's former religious education teacher described them as well-rounded children who loved to learn. She said Liam loved and admired his dad as a police officer and always spoke about his father with reverence and pride.
A makeshift memorial at the family home continues to grow, as an entire community wonders how and why.
A makeshift memorial in front of the families' home.
Neighbors tell FOX 5 NY that the father was on his way to retirement, but that expressed to them he wasn’t ready to give up his evening shift on the force and that he may have alluded to be forced out.
Grief counselors will be at the school for the next few weeks.