On New Year’s Eve 2017, a Long Branch, New Jersey family gathering ended in a house-wide massacre. At about 11:43 p.m. on December 31, 2017, gunfire erupted at the Kologi home on Wall Street. Steven Kologi, 42, his wife Linda, their teenage daughter Brittany, and family friend Mary Schulz were each found fatally shot in different parts of the house. Steven’s father survived, present in the home that night.

Investigators say the shooter was 16-year-old Scott Kologi, who used a Century Arms C39v2 semi-automatic rifle owned by his older brother and kept in the house. Officers found Scott still at the scene; the rifle was recovered and he was taken into custody. The case record notes Scott dressed in a long dark coat, sunglasses, and earplugs before moving through the house and shooting his family.

The family remembered Steven as a lifelong Long Branch resident, a truck driver for Clayton Concrete and an active community member who enjoyed softball, bodybuilding, skiing, and pool.