Two Deaths, One Gun: Father Kills Autistic Son
By Nicole Hegewald
In Northeast Philadelphia, Monday, November 9, 2009, Segundo Duque, took the life of his 16-year-old son, Fabian, before ending his own life. Duque, 61, of Ecuador, had Fabian in the back seat of his mini-van. Neighbors said that he was driving Fabian back to the Devereux Kanner Center in Pennsylvania, the special-needs school that he attended. But, he never made it.
“We didn’t know it was her son”
“Tells his son, ‘I love you,’ several times and then takes the gun at point blank range, shoots him and kills him,” said Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark.
Point A shows approximate location where suicide occured
Duque pulled his van over and shot Fabian in the head at Wyoming Avenue and H Street, in Juniata Park, police said. There was an unidentified young woman who fled from the vehicle unharmed, and called for help.
“She had no indication - she was unaware anything was going to happen,” Homicide Sgt. William Gallagher said.
Fabian’s mother lived up the street from the accident site and noted the police activity. She went to work unaware of her families involvement in the incident, according to an anonymous neighbor.
“She didn’t know at that point. And we didn’t know it was her son down there,” the neighbor said.
Louis Carrasquillo, whose mother was married to Duque before Fabian was born, said Fabian, although nonverbal, interacted with the neighborhood kids. All the neighbors helped look after him. He said that Duque was a wonderful and devoted father, but the car salesman was not a good person.
“He didn’t garner too much respect from anybody, but you had to respect him because he loved his kid,” said Carrasquillo. “Why he did that to his son, how he could do that to his son, I don’t know.”
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