'I Just Kept Firing:' NJ Teen Describes Killing Family

LONG BRANCH, NJ — "I knew I was doing it; it just felt like it wasn't me ... I doubt I'd do it again, but I'm not sure."

Thus spoke Scott Kologi in the chilling interview he gave to police just hours after he is accused of fatally shooting his mother, father, older sister and grandfather's girlfriend in the family's Long Branch home in 2017.

Kologi was 16 years old at the time. He is now 20 and his murder trial started this month; it continued Friday. The murder trial is being livestreamed and the public can watch it here.

The shooting happened on New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 2017. Kologi lived with his mother, father and older sister in a house on Wall Street in Long Branch. Authorities responded to the call of a shooting that night and found the bodies of father Steven Kologi, 42, mother Linda Kologi, 44, sister Brittany Kologi, 18, and the grandfather's girlfriend Mary Schultz, 70, who lived in Ocean Township.

Kologi was in the home when police got there, and he was immediately taken into custody. Prosecutors say in the minutes before the shooting, the teen put on sunglasses, a long black leather jacket and put earplugs in his ears ("to protect my ears," the boy said). He picked up his older brother Steven's semiautomatic AK47, which was kept in the home. He told police he had previously watched YouTube videos on how to use the gun.

Authorities say he went upstairs, shot his father and mother, and then walked downstairs, where he shot his sister and then shot his grandfather's girlfriend in the kitchen. The grandfather was also in the kitchen at the time; for reasons unknown, Kologi did not turn the gun on him. Media reports said the grandfather and grandson were close.

The Asbury Park Press reports that Kologi was on the autism spectrum, but NJ 101.5 quoted his grandfather as saying the teen boy had some sort of brain abnormality caused at birth. His defense lawyers say he may have "early signs of schizophrenia," which they are evaluating.

Here is what Kologi told police immediately after the shooting:

On Friday, a Monmouth County jury watched video from the police interrogations done just hours after the shooting, when Kologi was interviewed by detectives with the Monmouth County Prosecutor. In stunned silence, the jury watched the police interview conducted at 3:14 a.m. on New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 2018.

In it, Kologi answered the detective's questions calmly and without emotion.

"I knew I was doing it; it just felt like it wasn't me," Kologi told the detectives.

"But yet you knew what you were doing?," pressed the female detective. "Yes," he replied.

"Were you hearing any voices, seeing things when this happened?" she asked.

"No, no," said Kologi.

"Did you hear any voices that said 'do it?'" pressed the detective. "Visions commanding you to do it?"

"No, no," Kologi firmly replied.

"Did you ever think of killing someone else?" the male detective then asked, to which Kologi replied "Yes."

"What stopped you from doing it?" the detective asked. "I don't know," said Kologi, saying he was "Way too tired. I doubt I'd do it again (referring to killing someone), but I'm not sure."

"When you saw your grandpa, did you make the decision not to shoot him? Why?" asked the female detective. She asked if he "snapped out of it" upon seeing his grandfather.

"Because I was confused," Kologi replied.

"You seem like a smart guy. You know what you did; you're not a dummy," said the male detective.

"Yeah, yeah," said Kologi.

Kologi also told police that he took his brother's gun out multiple times and touched it in the past year. He also said he saw a video on YouTube that showed him how to use the AK47. Police also said Kologi had been reading about the 2017 London terrorist attacks on his cell phone shortly before the killings.

Older brother, who owned the gun, broke down in tears during police interview

Kologi's older brother, Steven, in his 20s, was also in the interview room with his younger brother. The older brother appeared protective and loving of the younger, even fist bumping Scott at one point. However, Steven's face crumples in pain as his younger brother calmly describes shooting their parents.

"I just kept firing until they like, stopped moving," Scott said in this NJ.com video from that same police interview. "I would aim at their head and whatnot ... yeah, when I saw they were still moving ... 'cause like, even though I was in this type of thing, I just didn't want them to be in pain at the same time."

The two detectives then briefly left the interview room to escort Scott to the restroom and Steven broke down sobbing, putting his head in his hands. He then stood up and violently threw something across a table.

The female detective then returned to the interrogation room, asked if he was OK, to which he said he was.

Now on Friday morning, four years later, that same female detective was interviewed on the stand. She recalled being surprised by how "articulate and intelligent" Kologi seemed to be during that interview, especially for a 16-year-old boy.

"He knew who he was shooting," said the detective on Friday morning. "He referred to them as his mother, his father, his 'grandmother' Mary and his sister Brittany. He shot his mother; he shot his father when his father came upstairs. He shot his grandmother and then he shot his sister."

"Did the defendant tell you he knew right from wrong?," asked the assistant prosecutor.

"Yes," replied the detective. "He said he was nervous as he was loading the magazines."

Also at the trial Friday, Kologi was depicted as a lonely teenage boy. He did not have a girlfriend, although he said wanted one; he had few friends and he did not have a driver's license. He often still slept in his parents' bed, even though he had a bunk bed in his own room down the hall. He wanted to go to college to study plants or behavioral psychology, or join the military.

Before the killings, Kologi confided in his mother several times that he felt a desire to shoot his parents or the rest of his family, reported the Asbury Park Press. He even repeatedly asked his mother if he could talk to a therapist about his "bad thoughts" and she said no, reportedly telling him “because they’ll take you away from me, and do you really want to go to the looney bin?"

His aunt, Michelle Molyneaux, who lived with her husband in the basement of the family's home, previously told police that she had heard the teenage boy say several times he wanted to kill his family members; "That he didn’t want to hurt anybody, but he said someday, he might have to," reported NJ.com.

Kologi has already pleaded not guilty in the four murders. His defense may involve an insanity claim, reported the Asbury Park Press, but the defense portion of his trial has not yet started.

Prior: Long Branch Man To Be Tried As Adult In Quadruple Murder Case

Get great local New Jersey news. Sign up for Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com