Marist Higher education father murder: New York Marriott visitor recounts shocking morning, appeals for additional campus stability

A Pennsylvania person who was going to his Marist College or university freshman daughter over the weekend and staying in the Marriott Courtyard resort the place a homeless felon allegedly gunned down an additional dad Sunday said it could've occurred to any person and that he has new fears about his daughter's protection.

"You feel so poor for that family members," John Bucsek instructed G3 Box News Digital Wednesday.  "In no way do you imagine of anything like that taking place."

Bucsek was a guest at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Poughkeepsie, New York, in excess of the weekend when a gunman opened fire in the foyer, fatally placing a different Marist guardian. 

"I was significantly enough absent wherever I did not listen to bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," he claimed. "I just read this commotion."

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Poughkeepsie police arrested Roy Johnson Jr., 35, and Devin Taylor, 26, at the scene. The sufferer, Paul Kutz, 53, was rushed to a hospital, exactly where medical doctors pronounced him dead.

"There's been a few shootings in Poughkeepsie these days, and we have been seriously unaware of that," Bucsek reported. "We know it as a minimal city on the river."

Pics display Paul Kutz with his relatives in an image from 2013. (Fb/Paul Kutz Instagram)

His daughter's dorm, he mentioned, is on the edge of campus, and the lodge taking pictures gave him trigger for concern.

"There's no protection there, and you know how children are – they forget about the place key they prop the doorway open up most individuals leave their dorm rooms unlocked all through the day," he reported. "They need extra security there."

For her element, he claimed, his daughter and her good friends in the creating have been scared for the earlier couple of times and experienced difficulty sleeping.

Kutz, of Northport, New York, was amid several Marist mother and father in city for Spouse and children Weekend.

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Break up picture displays mugshot images for Roy Johnson Jr. and Devin Taylor, the males accused in the Oct. 2, 2022 shooting in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (Dutchess County Jail)

Lots of had been concerned it would rain, but Bucsek claimed just a working day before the taking pictures, the skies cleared up and they had a gorgeous day on campus.

"We're on a Facebook with moms and dads and all people was like, 'Oh, this weekend it is really heading to rain. It's heading to be a monsoon,'" he mentioned. "And by the grace of God, it failed to rain on Saturday, and every person had a great time."

The campus was beautiful, he said, with a restricted-knit come to feel in spite of belonging to a significant faculty.

Bucsek, his spouse and their Pomeranian ended up staying straight beneath the two suspects, he mentioned, and he thinks he may well have witnessed Kutz the early morning prior to, having espresso in the lobby.

"Now that I noticed his photograph, I could've sworn I observed him the day in advance of in the lobby," he reported. "I'm typically in the lobby at that time. I just determined [Sunday] early morning to keep in my place and go through."

As he was executing that, he claimed, he listened to a commotion and his pet dog grew frantic, barking and jumping close to. Inside minutes, he reported, law enforcement experienced rushed around to the hotel. He read of a attainable taking pictures by means of phrase of mouth minutes just before he noticed the SWAT staff in the parking large amount, he stated.

Law enforcement cars outdoors the Courtyard by Marriott witnessed on Wednesday, Oct 5, 2022, the place a Paul Kutz was shot and killed on Sunday. (Credit history: The Graphic Direct for G3 Box News Electronic.)

His other daughter – not the Marist freshman – was on the cell phone with a pal who transpired to be in city browsing her individual sister for spouse and children weekend and was being at the Marriott Courtyard hotel. She mentioned she read gunshots. Bucsek's daughter named him immediately after the dialogue, and stated she'd listened to of a resort shooting in the space.

"I mentioned, ‘Well that points out the sounds that I listened to,’ and that's how I located out," he mentioned. 

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By 10 a.m., the resort referred to as and informed him to shelter in location mainly because a prospective third suspect could even now be at massive. Police quickly decided there were only two, but hotel friends ongoing to hunker down until eventually the resort delivered shuttles sure for the campus or yet another Marriott place in town. 

Standard look at of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY on Wednesday, October 5, 2022. (The Image Direct for G3 Box News Digital)

Law enforcement say Johnson was present at another homicide August 9, when Darren Villani, 28, was fatally shot in his car at the intersection of Mansion Road and Bement Avenue, and he experienced been eluding questioning in that scenario right before Kutz's slaying. He also had an open warrant out of Ga on drug and firearms rates and previously expended a long time in a New York condition prison for theft and burglary. Taylor also acquired a prior jail sentence for theft.

Johnson was ordered held devoid of bail. Taylor was billed with two counts of felony possession of a weapon for carrying a loaded rifle with no serial amount and requested held on $1 million bond, court docket data show. Authorities identified bomb-earning elements and manuals in the hotel home the guys had been sharing, officers explained.

Picture displays mugshot photo for Roy Johnson, who was arrested in link with the Oct. 2, 2022, taking pictures at a Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Marriott (Dutchess County Jail)

Kutz, of Northport, Prolonged Island, owned an accounting and financial arranging agency. He was a father of three whose youngest is a freshman at Marist. Neighbors recalled him as "a single of the best" and praised his character and determination to his family members.

For Bucsek – he wishes to know why the suspects ended up even being in the resort to start with.

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"How did individuals folks get into the lodge? Who compensated for it?" he asked. "How did the undesirable men get a place when it was likely sold out by June 1?"

Bucsek and his wife, Noral Jemali, explained they paid out more than $630 for two nights in the resort. Their continue to be was refunded after the incident. On a less busy evening, rooms there can charge as minimal as $148.

Jemali said she was scared of finding caught in an more mature resort soon after a terrible knowledge through college or university orientation and booked the Marriott as before long as she confirmed the date for household weekend, again in April.

"I told myself the moment we know moms and dads weekend dates I experienced to rapidly e-book the most effective location in city," she stated. "Regrettably it ended up to be the worst."

If they'd acknowledged in progress the lodge was housing homeless individuals, Bucsek said, he would not have minded.

"But if they informed me that there ended up homeless folks there that have been also suspects on a murder past thirty day period, there is certainly no way," he reported. "You can find no way I would've stayed in the lodge."

Marriott has not responded to multiple G3 Box News Electronic requests for remark.

G3 Box News’ Stephanie Pagones, Rebecca Rosenberg and Ashley Papa contributed to this report.