Vermont villagers shocked over NY murder/suicide

As police officials in New York try to put the pieces together, friends and family here are still puzzled as to what caused Vincentian Rosette “Diana” Samuel to commit double murder and suicide.{{more}}

Two days after Samuel, 43, a 13-year veteran of the New York Police Department (NYPD), shot and killed her husband Dason Peters, and one-year-old son Dylan Samuel, before turning the 9mm Glock on herself, relatives and friends were visibly struggling with what had transpired.

SEARCHLIGHT’s visit to the Vermont community where Samuel grew up yielded little response from relatives and friends, most of whom opted not to speak about Samuel or the incident.

One long-time friend of Samuel’s however, expressed to SEARCHLIGHT his shock and disappointment about the tragedy involving his friend, whom he called Diana.

“I’m shocked. People are shocked. I never thought Diana could end up so,” the villager said. “They just don’t believe Diana do this.

“I knew her right through ‘til she went to the (United) States… she was cool, she was jovial, she was a sociable person.”

The villager said that some persons in the community seemed not to be sympathetic and speculations were widespread as to what caused Samuel to go off the edge.

“Some people are saying that this is retribution for what her brother did, so while some are sympathetic, others are not.

“She had her first child in her 20s and to come back 18 years after and become a mother…. I just feel that this guy made her upset.

“She had a baby and he was leaving… I believe that had something to do with it,” the individual added.

Another person familiar with Samuel and Peters told SEARCHLIGHT that the two were married, but had been experiencing difficulties for some time.

The veteran police officer shot Peters, 33, then Dylan, before shooting herself on Monday morning in their Brooklyn firstfloor apartment.

Her 19-year-old son from a previous relationship, Dondre Samuel, managed to escape during the shooting, and dialled 911.

According to the New York Daily News, a ripped-up suicide note investigators retrieved from a toilet in Samuel’s apartment asked someone to care for her teenage son.

She apparently also said that she was “sorry”, and that she “had to do it”.

An online article also stated that Samuel had received a letter last Saturday about her and Peters, who was a track maintenance supervisor with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

It is believed that the letter sparked arguments between the two.

Peters was scheduled to leave for a two-week trip to his native Guyana the day he died.

He left his mother’s home at 6 that morning to pick up Dylan, so Rosette could go to work. Peters was scheduled to take Dylan swimming at noon.

Peters’ mother, Rosemund Peters, told the Daily News that she was hard hit by the news of the death of her son and grandson.

“As a mother, you don’t expect to see your child go in such a way. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword, but my child was not that type of child,” she said.

“I haven’t heard from her family. I’m not blaming them, because they had no control over her. My heart goes out to them. Two families are grieving right now,” she added.

Another online news site, the Metro, said that Samuel, who was assigned to the 108th precinct in Long Island City, Queens, had never discharged a firearm before, and was not on any kind of monitoring by the Department.

The news site further stated that a law enforcement source reports that Peters was found in the entryway of the first-floor apartment in East Flatbush. The bodies of Samuel and Dylan were found face up on the bed in her bedroom.

SEARCHLIGHT understands that Samuel, who attended the Girls’ High School before migrating to the United States, was one of four children born to Verene Samuel.

Besides Rosette, another of Verene’s daughters resided in the United States. A third sister is deceased, while only brother Shorn Samuel is currently housed at Her Majesty’s Prison, serving a lifetime prison sentence for the 2006 beheading of Stacy Wilson.