ST. JAMES, NY – A man shot and killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend in St. James on Wednesday night, Suffolk police said Thursday.

Daniel Coppola, 50, of Head of the Harbor, was accused of killing his ex-wife Kelly Coppola, 50, and Kelly’s boyfriend Kenneth Pohlman, 53, in their Brasswood Road home, Detective/Lieutenant Kevin Beyrer, commanding officer of the Suffolk County Police Department’s homicide unit, told reporters.

Beyrer spoke of a “tragic incident”.

Daniel Coppola’s 15-year-old daughter called 911 at 11:45 p.m. and told police her father had tried to kill himself with a gun in his Harbor Road home, police said. Officers arrested Coppola for his suicide attempt and were led to a gun in the home, police said. Police did not know until Thursday afternoon whether Coppola legally owned the gun, police said.

At 11:54 p.m., a woman called 911 to report that the teenager had left her mother’s Brasswood Road home with Daniel Coppola without Kelly Coppola’s permission, and the caller told police that the Coppolas were divorced, police said.

Officers found the door had been forced open and discovered Kelly Coppola and Pohlman dead from gunshot wounds, police said. Kelly and Pohlman lived with other family members who were not involved in the shooting, police said.

Coppola is being evaluated by a psychiatrist because of his suicide statements and will face charges after his release, Beyrer said.

Beyrer said the Coppolas’ daughter was at the St. James home when Daniel contacted her and told her to leave the house before he went in and shot his ex-wife and her boyfriend, Beyrer said.

“(Daniel Coppola) went to the house on Brasswood Road,” Beyrer said. “He picked up the girl, put her in his car, committed the murders and drove her from there to Harbor Road. While he was driving her, she was communicating with friends via text message, writing, ‘I don’t know what my dad did. I don’t know how my mom is.’ They try to reach the mother but can’t reach her so they call 911.”

Both families have been notified and the young girl is now with family members, police said.

Beyrer said he would not describe the shooting as a “custody dispute.”

There was no protective order against Kelly Coppola against Daniel, and the only documented domestic incident was a “non-criminal” argument between the Coppolas when they were still married, Beyrer said. The divorce is final and was “contested,” Beyrer said.