Two dead, suspect in custody after seven-hour standoff in Pulaski

James Steen Jr. charged with second-degree murder in deaths of his estranged wife and her boyfriend.

Update, 7:10 a.m.: Oswego County Sheriff's Department officials this morning reported James H. Steen, 39, of Hastings, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of two people at the Villager Apartments in Pulaski Sunday.

Authorities are continuing to withhold the identities of the two victims beyond saying they were and adult male and an adult female. But authorities this morning confirmed both were killed with a firearm.

Steen is being held in the Oswego County Jail without bail.

Previously:

Pulaski, NY - A gunman killed two people Sunday and locked police in a seven-hour standoff in the Oswego County village of Pulaski before surrendering, officials said.

The suspect gave up shortly before 7:15 p.m., about seven hours after Pulaski police received a call about shots fired at the Villager Apartments on Lewis Street, said Sheriff Reuel Todd and Pulaski Police Chief Ellery Terpening.

The victims were found dead after the suspect surrendered, Todd said.

“At this point in time we’re looking at a double homicide,” he said.

He declined to identify the victims, pending notification of relatives.

Charles Carr Sr. said the sheriff told him that Carr’s son, Charles Carr Jr., and his son’s girlfriend, Victoria Steen, had been killed.

Deputies were holding Steen’s estranged husband, James Steen Jr., as a suspect, said Sgt. Charles Atkinson.

Carr Sr. said James Steen had called him at 3:35 p.m. using Carr Jr.’s cell phone as police surrounded the Villager Apartments.

According to Carr Sr., Steen told the father “I was going to be less one son.”

Steen sent a text message from the same phone to Carr Sr., saying, “You played my head and my family.”

Shortly after noon, Pulaski police received a call about a domestic disturbance at the apartment, Todd said. As a village officer responded a second call came, this time saying shots had been fired, he said.

Officers could not enter because the suspect had barricaded himself inside one of the building’s 12 apartments.

Thomas J. Egleston, whose apartment at the Villager is directly above the one where the incident took place, told investigators he saw a woman he knew as Vicky enter the building about 11:30 a.m. with a man in his early 30s and a young girl.

A few minutes later, he said, he heard banging, crashing and “babies crying,” followed by a loud bang that sounded like a shotgun.

He walked to his window, heard another bang and called 911, he said. While he was on the phone he heard a third bang and the yelling from the adults stopped.

He looked out the window to see the girl come out of the apartment crying, “Mommy, mommy, mommy,” he told investigators.

A plainclothes officer came and got the child, he said.

Sheriff’s officers, state police, Environmental Conservation Police and border patrol officers joined Pulaski police at the scene, Terpening said. Residents were evacuated immediately from the other apartments, he said.

“We negotiated all afternoon with the subject” using cell phones, Todd said. “With the help of Pulaski PD, our negotiators, the subject’s attorney and relatives we were able to get the subject out of the house.”

Moments before he spoke to reporters, Todd spoke to about two dozen friends and relatives of the hostages, including Carr Sr., who had gathered near a ballfield behind the apartment building. The crowd erupted in sobs and cries of grief as Todd broke the news.

Contact John Mariani at jmariani@syracuse.com or 470-3105.