Man fatally shoots ex wife and her new man in their home then tells daughter her mom is dead

Friday, August 30, 2024 - A man shot his ex-wife and her man inside their million-dollar Long Island home on Wednesday, August 28, then told his daughter her mother was dead, cops and family said.

Daniel Coppola, 50, allegedly shot down the front door and shot the couple — Kelly Coppola, 50, and Kenneth Pohlman, 53 — while they slept in their St. James home around 11:45 p.m., according to law enforcement sources and Pohlman’s kin.

Moments earlier, he warned his daughter to stay in his car outside 21 Brasswood Road. 

“He leaves her in the car, goes behind the bush … and evidently he broke down the door, went up [and] did what he did,” Pohlman’s grieving dad, Kenneth Pohlman Sr., told reporters outside the couple’s home.

“[He] came back and told his daughter, “I killed your mother and Kenny.’ That’s what he told her.”

Daniel Coppola then fled the gruesome scene while their shocked teen daughter, whom he shared with his ex-wife, reached out to her friends, Detective Lt. Kevin Breyer said.

“As he’s driving her, she is communicating with friends via text saying, ‘I don’t know what my father did. I don’t know how my mother is,'” Breyer added.

Her friends called her mother but were unable to get in touch with her, leading them to call 911.

Daniel Coppola was later arrested at his St. James home about a mile away from the blood-soaked scene and is under mental evaluation after making suicidal statements, police said.

He’s been slapped with two counts of second-degree murder, according to Suffolk County Police Department.

The bloodshed came after the former couple finalized their divorce a year or two ago, according to Breyer.

“Apparently the divorce is final [and] apparently it was a contentious divorce,” he added, without elaborating.

Police said there was no order of protection issued against the bitter ex, but they were called for a non-criminal dispute between the pair while they were married.

Meanwhile, Pohlman’s family referred to the former husband as an abusive “maniac.”

“From what she would say, he abused her,” Kenneth Pohlman’s grieving brother, Tom Pohlman, told reporters.

Pohlman met Kelly after losing his wife to cancer several years ago, his brother said.

His family remembered him as a romantic who plastered love letters on his bedroom wall.

Kelly Coppola and Pohlman shared the six-bedroom, four-bath, $1.1 million home, officials said.

A friend of Pohlman’s, Geoff Boyle, remembered him as a “great family man” and “awesome workout buddy.”

“He didn’t show up at the gym this morning,” he told News 12 Long Island.

“I shot him a text and I got no response from him. Now I know why.”

His family was left grappling with the sudden loss.

“Her ex-husband shot down his door and ran upstairs and shot him and her point blank,” Tom Pohlman said.

“How do you wrap your head around it?”