Two children were among four people killed after a stabbing at a home in Queens, New York on Sunday morning.
Police were called to the Far Rockaway area at around 5am local time by a young female who “stated that her cousin is killing her family members”.
On arrival, two officers found a man carrying luggage leaving a house that had been set on fire.
The man reportedly drew a kitchen steak knife on the officers, stabbing one in the neck and chest and the other in the head, Jeff Maddrey, chief of department for the New York Police Department, said.
One of the officers shot the suspect dead, he added.
The officers were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to recover, police said.
An 11-year-old girl found in front of the house died from her injuries, police said.
After the New York Fire Department put out the fire, emergency services found the bodies of three other people inside the house: a 12-year-old boy, a 44-year-old female, and a male in his 30s.
A 61-year-old female remains in hospital in a critical condition.
The suspect was named as 38-year-old Courtney Gordon, who had one prior arrest for domestic violence in the Bronx.
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