NY Lawyer Who Killed Self, Wife and 2 Kids Bought Shotgun 6 Months Earlier; Was Crime Spree Planned?

A New York lawyer who beat his wife to death at their Westchester home last week and then used a shotgun to kill the couple's two children in their beds, before committing suicide apparently using the weapon in the basement, had purchased it legally not quite six months earlier, state police said today.

That led Samuel Friedlander's father-in-law to question, in conjunction with the timing of the couple's divorce proceedings, whether Friedlander had planned the crime spree in advance, the Journal News reports

“It must have been premeditated,” said his father-in-law, Gary Perez. “I know they had come to an agreement on access to custody at the beginning of April, and I know he wasn’t too happy about it, but I don’t know if that had any bearing on it.”

Another court hearing had been scheduled last week, just after the slayings.

Additional coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "New York Lawyer Dead, Along with Wife and 2 Kids, in Reported Murder-Suicide at Their Home"