N.J. teen kills kin, friend, prosecutor says

FREEHOLD, N.J. — A 16-year-old boy shot his parents, his sister and a family friend multiple times at close range on New Year’s Eve in a bloodbath that somehow avoided claiming the lives of three people who escaped the house unharmed, prosecutors said Tuesday as they revealed more details about the killings.

The teenager, whom prosecutors haven’t identified because of his age, was to have made an initial court appearance on Tuesday, but it was postponed until today as a judge weighed a request by a media organization to open the family court proceeding, which normally is closed.

The victims, who weren’t all in the same room of the house, were shot with a rifle loaded with a 15-round magazine, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said. He didn’t disclose a possible motive for the shooting.

The victims were identified as the boy’s parents, 44-year-old Steven Kologi and 42-year-old Linda Kologi; his 18-year-old sister, Brittany Kologi; and 70-year-old Mary Schultz, who lived with the family.

The boy’s grandfather, his brother and a family friend, a woman in her 20s, escaped the house uninjured. Someone in the home called 911, Gramiccioni said, though he didn’t identify which person made the call.

The rifle, a semi-automatic made by Century Arms, had been legally purchased by someone in the home who escaped the shooting, Gramiccioni said.