Utica NY Correctional Officers ID’d As Victims In Monday Morning Murder-Suicide

UTICA, NY. (THECOUNT) — Christopher Conkling, Heather Mock and Andrew Pruitt have been identified as the victims in a Monday morning murder-suicide in Utica, New York. All were employed as correctional officers at Marcy Correctional Facility.

Conkling, 38, shot 33-year-old Pruitt in the head after arriving to the home of Mock, 35, before abducting her in a vehicle.

At some point during the ordeal, Conkling pointed his gun at Mock’s mother, who ran upstairs and called police around midnight.

Police say Conkling then abducted Mock and took her in a black SUV to his home on Van Rensselaer Road, just a few blocks away. Utica Police located the SUV and called in State Police and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office for assistance. Police evacuated neighboring homes and attempted to make contact with Conkling and Mock for several hours before entering the home and finding both dead from gunshot wounds, reports WKTV.

Police are calling the case a murder-suicide. They say they are processing two crime scenes, at Mock’s home on Elmhurst and Conkling’s home on Van Rensselaer. They found several weapons in Conkling’s home, but are not sure which one was used in the shootings.

Pruitt was transported to an area hospital where he is expected to survive his injuries.

Police say they are investigating if there was a relationship between Mock and Pruitt. They say Conkling and Mock were previously engaged.

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Geo quick facts: Utica is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York, its population was 62,235 in the 2010 U.S. census – Wikipedia.