A Queens grandma who barely survived a brutal early morning stabbing that left her son dead had been contemplating moving because she feared for her life, neighbors said.
The 68 year-old woman, who is recovering at Jamaica Hospital Sunday, told neighbors that life had taken a turn for the worse after her 37-year-old son–public school teacher Kenneth Schemitz–had moved back home.
“She told quite a few people she wanted to move,” a neighbor, who declined to give her name, told The Post. “It got worse after Kenny moved in.”
“The mother told me she was scared. She didn’t like the people her son was bringing home— You know, like it drug addicts,” the neighbor added. “She was getting threats and she felt her life was in danger.”
Police responded to a call of an assault in progress at the home on 113th Street near the corner of 101st Avenue in Richmond Hill around 2 a.m, and found a lifeless and paint-spattered Kenny, who had been stabbed repeatedly in the face, head, torso, and arms, cops said.
Schemitz had also suffered major blunt force trauma to the head, according to authorities.
Another neighbor who declined to identify herself was awoken last night to sounds of screaming through her open window.
“I could hear yelling and someone screaming ‘Stop it!’ I called 911 and then it got real quiet,” she said.
Though police have yet to identify a motive, neighbors hinted at a fractured family past and the deceased man’s criminal record, which began at an early age.
“The daughter, last I heard, is in jail,” said yet another neighbor who decline to identify themselves. “She was nothing but trouble to her mother. The father of the daughter’s child, [overdosed] in [prison], and his family blamed the daughter. They told her they would hurt her family.”
At 21, Schemitz bashed his sleeping dad in the head with unknown object, cops said.
The dead man was also arrested after a domestic dispute with his wife on March 8, during which he packed her bags, lugged them to the curb, and then proceeded to hurl them at her.
Despite an order of protection, he then sent her threatening texts, police said, including one which read “You’re lucky I follow the lord, or I’d stab you to death.”
Then, on March 21, the two-story home was set on fire in what was deemed an arson.
Police said the victims had an order of protection against a relative who was not present at the time of the attack, but it was unclear if that person was being considered a suspect.
The investigation is ongoing.