A Jewish father shot his 9-year-old son before turning the gun on himself during a custody visit at Sunday at a New Hampshire YWCA.

Muni Savyon, 54, had recently returned from his brother’s funeral in Israel and had confided in his friend and local Chabad Rabbi Levi Krinsky that he was suicidal.

Still the shooting came as a shock to Krinsky. “What would provoke him to take his life and his son’s life? I don’t think anyone can figure that out,” he told the AP. “My heart goes out to the family.”

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Savyon, who was born in Israel and moved to the United States worked as a software engineer in New Hampshire. He was active in Libertarian causes and was defeated twice in races for New Hampshire Legislature.

He separated from Joshua’s mother Ellen Savyon Vig in 1997. Vig described her ex-husband as kind and caring. Though, “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,” the AP reported.

Krinsky said he had no idea that Savyon was capable of violence. “We have to be more and more alert to mental illness and people who’re depressed,” he said.

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