Incident: July 25, 2026, Far Rockaway, Queens. Footage released by NYPD: August 14, 2026.
Just before noon on July 25, a woman called 911 from the street outside her home on Ocean Crest Boulevard. There had been gunshots inside. Her husband had a shotgun. She had seen a body on a bed. She told the operator he had mental health issues.
NYPD’s 101st Precinct set a perimeter. They knocked. They called the house, over and over. Nobody ever picked up. ESU — NYPD’s tactical unit — responded and stacked at the front door preparing to make entry.
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About fifteen to twenty minutes in, with officers in that stack, the house exploded.
Fifteen to twenty seconds after the blast, 33-year-old Kegan Thomas walked out of the burning house carrying the shotgun and wearing a tactical vest loaded with extra ammunition. Officers ordered him to drop it. He didn’t. They shot him. He survived and went to surgery in critical but stable condition.
Inside, officers found Clemer Ponce, 56, and Selena Ponce, 28. Both were already dead. A dog and a cat died of smoke inhalation. The cause of the explosion is still undetermined.
Thomas is charged with murder, attempted murder, arson, two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and criminal possession of a weapon. His arraignment status has not been reported — he was still hospitalized.
Now the footage.
The setup was right. Barricaded man, shotgun, two people unaccounted for inside, and nobody knows what is happening in that house. Perimeter, repeated phone contact, tactical unit on scene, no rush at the door. That is the correct answer to that problem and there is nothing to criticize in it.
What no plan covers is a barricade turning into an exit. A structure fire put an armed man in the open in fifteen seconds, moving toward the same officers who were about to go through his door. They had cover and they reacted to what actually came out of the fire.
There is a crossfire moment on the video worth watching twice, and it is not a criticism — it is an officer handling it correctly in real time. One officer moves forward across another officer’s line of fire. The officer behind him pulls his handgun back and off target as he crosses. That is exactly what you want to see. Cops are not special forces and you will never get enough communication in a moving problem to keep everyone out of everyone else’s lane. What you can control is where your muzzle is pointed, and he controlled it.
The radio traffic is the other thing. Fire in the basement. Garage blew open. He’s got armor on. Watch your back. That is a group of officers feeding each other information under a structure fire with an armed man walking out of it, and it held together.
Two more facts, because the coverage got them wrong. No source says Thomas fired at police — one outlet called this a shootout and nothing supports that word. And officers did not fire at any point during the barricade. Every round came after he walked out armed and refused commands.
The round count, the number of officers who fired and the distance have not been released. NYPD’s own presentation put 36 rounds on the screen. Whether that vest was rated body armor has never been addressed.
The shooting has not been ruled on. NYPD’s Force Investigation Division has it and there is no public finding. It has the elements you would expect a review to clear — an armed man refusing commands at close range after killing two people — but nobody has said so on the record, and until they do it is open.
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