Watertown Mourns Loss Of Siblings Killed In Shooting

WATERTOWN, CT — The community is mourning the loss of two teen siblings killed by their mother's boyfriend Tuesday night. Community members gathered at a makeshift memorial in Watertown and a vigil at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Thomaston Wednesday, NBC CT reported.

Police said that Paul Ferguson, 42, shot and killed 15-year-old Della Jette and her 16-year-old brother, Sterling Jette Jr. before turning the gun on himself. Both attended Kaynor Technical High School in Waterbury.

Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS) superintendent Jeffrey Wihbey told WFSB that a team would be on campus this week to provide grief counseling for anyone in the school community.

Kerry Markey, CTECS director of communications, said in a statement that"there is nothing worse that can happen to a school community."

A memorial was also set up outside a landscaping business where Sterling Jette worked, Evergreen Lawn and Landscaping, according to WFSB.

Police said Della Jette had gone on a school field trip to New York earlier that day. When she returned home, she talked with her mother about Ferguson smoking cigarettes in the house.

The conversation got a little loud, and Ferguson went upstairs to tell Della to keep quiet, according to reports. This led to an argument, and Ferguson armed himself with a handgun he retrieved from a safe, reports stated.

Police believe Ferguson first shot Sterling in the leg when he tried to intervene. He then went to the deck, shot Della in the back, then went back inside and shot Sterling in the chest. He then went to a bedroom and shot himself, reports indicated.

Ferguson was a convicted felon barred from owning a firearm as he was initially charged with sexual assault that was pleaded down to unlawful restraint, according to WTNH. Naugatuck police said Ferguson was arrested twice, once in 2014 on suspicion of larceny and in 2016 on allegations of drunken driving.

The siblings' father had killed himself in the same home on Litchfield Road three years earlier, according to reports.