A retired NYPD detective helped nab a triple-shooting suspect who was on the run after he allegedly shot his girlfriend and her teen sons — leaving one of the kids dead.
Patricia Schiller, a 20-year member of New York’s Finest, had heard suspected killer Fernando Jimenez was on the loose near her tiny real estate office off Peekskill Hollow Road in Putnam Valley, New York — so she strapped on her gun and went to make sure the place was OK.
“There were helicopters all over, there were [New York State] troopers with their dogs,” Schiller told The Post on Wednesday. “And I was thinking, ‘He’s going to come out of the woods.’ You never know.”
But that’s when she noticed something strange: Her office’s air conditioner unit, normally lodged in the side window, was laying on the ground. And the blinds were completely drawn.
“We never put the blinds the way he had them,” she said. “He put everything down so nobody could see in. It didn’t feel right.”
When she checked her interior surveillance camera — which has sound — she could hear a man breathing and moving around.
That was all the proof the former investigator needed — and she took it to a state trooper who was sitting at a nearby intersection.
“I said, ‘Listen to me, call you gotta call, but I’m 99.9% shot that the guy who shot the three people is in my office right now,’” Schiller said.
The trooper started for the building, but Schiller stopped him.
“I said, ‘Don’t, he’s probably looking through the blinds. So call your backup. Don’t go near it,” she said. “That’s when they called the dog and the [cops].”
Jimenez was cuffed less than a half-hour later — and a little worse for wear after a police dog got to him.
“There was blood all over,” Schiller said. “I think he headed toward the bathroom, but the dog got him before he closed the bathroom door … he got bit in the arm and the leg.”
The massive manhunt began shortly after Jimenez allegedly shot his 39-year-old girlfriend, Christina Raimondi, and her two boys, ages 15 and 13, in a townhouse near the Crossroads Plaza on Route 6 in Somers around 11:30 p.m. Monday, according to law enforcement sources and ABC 7.
Michael, a tenth grader, died at the scene, according to The Journal News.
His mom and younger brother are still hospitalized in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the State Police issued a shelter-in-place order for Westchester County — which also forced the Putnam Valley School District in neighboring Putnam County to close Tuesday as officers searched for the alleged gunman, a Chilean national, sources said.
Family friend Nicole Pagliaro started an online fundraiser in the tragedy’s wake — and it’s already raised more than $100,000.
“As Christina fights for her life, she faces the unimaginable reality of having to bury her child,” Pagliaro wrote, adding that Raimondi is a “loving, devoted mother who has always put her family above all else.
“Their road to recovery will be long, arduous, and filled with immense challenges,” she said of the two survivors. “Together, they’ve shown remarkable strength and resilience, but they cannot face this alone.”
Jimenez was hit Tuesday night with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and a weapons charge.
He faces life in prison, if convicted.
Schiller, for her part, is just happy that she got to the office before any of the 12 real estate agents who works for her.
“I’m just glad it was me that came [and noticed] the red flags,” said Schiller, who during her career worked in both the Manhattan sex crimes and child abuse unit and the Bronx District Attorney’s squad.
“It could have been so many different scenarios — and terrible,” she said.
