A husband and wife in Borough Park suffered multiple stab wounds inside their home Saturday night, and were declared dead at the hospital a short time later. The couple’s son, who had barricaded himself inside the home for about an hour, was arrested as a “person of interest.”

Police arrived at around 5:20 p.m. to a 911 call at the home of Jacob and Rachel Sperber on 45th Street to find Hatzolah medics rushing the couple to the Maimonides Medical Center, according to the New York City Police Department and multiple news outlets. Both were 75 years old and died from their wounds. Their 46-year-old son was taken into police custody.

Community members at the scene from within Borough Park’s tight-knit Haredi community appeared to be reeling from the incident. “This never happens here,” one neighbor told the New York Daily News. “I am shocked. We are all in big shock.”

“They were special people,” another neighbor, Schmiel Weiss, said about the couple.

The Borough Park section of Brooklyn is home to a largely Haredi population belonging to various Hasidic sects. In 2022, the neighborhood had one of the lowest violent crime rates in New York City, according to police statistics.

The NYPD said the investigation remains ongoing.