Upstate official kills ex, new lover & self

AN UPSTATE elected official shot and killed his exgirlfriend and her new boyfriend Thursday before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Efrain Lopez shot estranged partner Margarita Soto and her new paramour Jose Cruz just before 10 a.m., in a parking lot near home his home, authorities said Thursday.

Lopez, a 55-year-old trustee for the village of Ellenville, pulled into the Canal Lock apartments lot at about the same time Cruz did, said Phil Mattracion, police chief in the Catskills town.

Both men got out of their cars, the chief said, and then Lopez took out a .30-30 caliber rifle and fatally shot Cruz.

He then walked over to Cruz’s vehicle, where Soto was in the passenger seat, and fired the through the window, killing her.

Police described Soto, 55, as Lopez’s “longtime domestic partner” who began dating Cruz, also 55, a short time ago.

“We do know he wasn’t happy about the situation,” Mattracion said.

Lopez worked as a school maintenance worker for 30 years in addition to serving as a trustee for the village of about 4,000.

“He’s always been polite and courteous,” Mattracion said, adding the couple was not involved in any previous domestic dispute complaints. “It is a tragedy of just unproportional magnitudes. I was shocked.”