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Pompton Lakes man who killed his children and himself was separating from wife Tuesday, October 19, 2010
A Pompton Lakes man who shot and killed his two young children with a rifle in Ringwood on Monday before committing suicide had recently separated from his wife, police said Tuesday.Kurtis Birth, 38, killed his daughter, Jada, 5, and son, Jordan, 3, on Monday at his childhood home on Skyview Road after he picked the children up from day care, police said. Police found Jada on the front porch, dead from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head, authorities said. After police surrounded the house, officers found Kurtis Birth in the driver’s seat of his black Nissan Maxima, which was parked on the property, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the right side of his head from a .22-caliber rifle. Police searched the house and found Jordan’s body inside the front door. The toddler had been shot once in the back of the head, police said.The house, which is owned by Birth’s mother, had been unoccupied for some time and has fallen into disrepair, Police Chief Bernard Lombardo said.
“I’ve been a police officer for 29 years and I’ve been to a lot of different crime scenes, and this was the most difficult, emotionally,” Lombardo said. “I’ve seen more grisly and gruesome scenes, but to see two young children taken in such a horrible way, this was by far the hardest.”