Dad kills son, self at YWCA offices

Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.H.

A New Hampshire software engineer shot his 9-year-old son to death before taking his own life during supervised visitation at a YWCA office, officials said Sunday.

An adult supervisor was present when Muni Savyon, 54, of Manchester, took out a handgun and shot 9-year-old Joshua Savyon of Amherst before shooting himself around 10 a.m., the attorney general’s office said.

The father sent an email to a friend suggesting he was suicidal before the shootings, said Rabbi Levi Krinsky of Chabad Lubavitch in Manchester. Krinsky said Savyon had been depressed after recently returning from his brother’s funeral in Israel but he had seen him last week and had no concerns he would harm himself or someone else.

On Sundays, the YWCA is open for supervised child visitation and custody exchanges. Krinsky said the man and the boy’s mother shared custody of the boy after parting ways years ago.

Law-enforcement officials said the relationship had been contentious at times and Muni Savyon had previously threatened to kill himself, his son’s mother and their son.

But Ellen Savyon Vig, who was once married to Muni Savyon and had remained friends with him after their 1997 divorce, described him as a kind-hearted person.

Autopsies were scheduled for today.