Saturday, August 31, 2024 - A man shot his ex-wife and her man
inside their million-dollar Long Island home on Wednesday, August 28, then
told his daughter her mother was dead, cops and family said.
Daniel Coppola, 50, allegedly shot down the front door
and shot the couple — Kelly Coppola, 50, and Kenneth Pohlman, 53 — while
they slept in their St. James home around 11:45 p.m., according to law
enforcement sources and Pohlman’s kin.
Moments earlier, he warned his daughter to stay in his car
outside 21 Brasswood Road.
“He leaves her in the car, goes behind the bush … and evidently he broke down the door, went up [and] did what he did,” Pohlman’s grieving dad, Kenneth Pohlman Sr., told reporters outside the couple’s home.
“[He] came back and told his daughter, “I killed your mother
and Kenny.’ That’s what he told her.”
Daniel Coppola then fled the gruesome scene while their
shocked teen daughter, whom he shared with his ex-wife, reached out to her
friends, Detective Lt. Kevin Breyer said.
“As he’s driving her, she is communicating with friends via
text saying, ‘I don’t know what my father did. I don’t know how my mother is,'”
Breyer added.
Her friends called her mother but were unable to get in touch with her, leading them to call 911.
Daniel Coppola was later arrested at his St. James home
about a mile away from the blood-soaked scene and is under mental evaluation
after making suicidal statements, police said.
He’s been slapped with two counts of second-degree murder,
according to Suffolk County Police Department.
The bloodshed came after the former couple finalized their
divorce a year or two ago, according to Breyer.
“Apparently the divorce is final [and] apparently it was a contentious divorce,” he added, without elaborating.
Police said there was no order of protection issued against
the bitter ex, but they were called for a non-criminal dispute between the pair
while they were married.
Meanwhile, Pohlman’s family referred to the former husband
as an abusive “maniac.”
“From what she would say, he abused her,” Kenneth Pohlman’s
grieving brother, Tom Pohlman, told reporters.
Pohlman met Kelly after losing his wife to cancer several
years ago, his brother said.
His family remembered him as a romantic who plastered love
letters on his bedroom wall.
Kelly Coppola and Pohlman shared the six-bedroom, four-bath, $1.1 million home, officials said.
A friend of Pohlman’s, Geoff Boyle, remembered him as a
“great family man” and “awesome workout buddy.”
“He didn’t show up at the gym this morning,” he
told News 12 Long Island.
“I shot him a text and I got no response from him. Now I
know why.”
His family was left grappling with the sudden loss.
“Her ex-husband shot down his door and ran upstairs and shot
him and her point blank,” Tom Pohlman said.
“How do you wrap your head around it?”
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