Murder: Son says mother ‘died protecting a kid’
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A foot-wide crack opened,
and Moses raised his left hand
to hold it open. Harun swung
his rod into the black abyss.
Several blows landed, but he
gashed his son’s hands.
“That’s when he cut me,”
said Moses, who spoke from
his hospital bed. “I was swing-
ing blind.”
Unable to get inside, he ran
down the stairs and called his
brother, Felix Ngolo, 18, telling
him come home. Now. Moses
dialed 911, barely able to
describe the brutal assault
unfolding before running back
up the steps.
“Before I finished saying
the address, I dropped the
phone and ran back upstairs,”
he said. “I kicked the door off
the hinges.”
■ “He just wasn’t a respectful
The blood pouring from
Moses’ side felt like warm
bath water washing over his
body, he said.
In the dark, he reached for
Noah. Behind him, Harun
tried to rack his son with the
spear he’d retrieved from the
basement before an argument
with Maria.
“He just started stabbing,”
Moses said. “I looked down
and there was blood spurting
out. He had punctured my kid-
ney.”
After his arrest, Harun told
For Ngolo family, a history of violence Neighbor thought couple no longer had trouble
By Andrew Staub
Staff Writer
Though years apart, the
afternoon of Dec. 21, 2007, and
the night of June 19, 2010,
unfolded in similar violent
fashion at 28 Simpson St.,
court records show.
On both days, police say an
angry Harun Ngolo armed
himself with a makeshift
spear — a steak knife attached
to a 3-foot metal pole in 2007
and a knife fashioned to a long
wooden pole Saturday — and
terrorized his family in their
Wilkes-Barre home.
At about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 21,
2007, police converged on the
Ngolos’ home after a report
Ngolo had chased his wife,
Maria Jeringa Ngolo, and two
of their sons into an upstairs
bedroom, threatening to kill
them, police said.
At the time, Maria Ngolo
WB_VOICE - CVDAILY - 3 - 06/21/10
Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll, right, speaks about
homicide charges against Harun Ngolo during a press conference at Wil-
kes-Barre Police Headquarters as city Detective Brent Sevison, left, and As-
sistant District Attorney Mike Vough look on.
detectives he and wife argued
over plans for Father’s Day.
She wanted to gamble at a
casino, according to a police
affidavit. For protection from
his wife, he went downstairs
and fetched the weapon,
according to the affidavit.
In the midst of the dispute,
Moses couldn’t find the light
switch and picked his way
through the room, But he
couldn’t retrieve Noah and
left when he heard police
had an active protection from
abuse order against her hus-
band, who police said attacked
her with a hammer in March
2007.
“You’re going to send me to
jail?” Harun Ngolo said, court
documents indicate. “I’m
going to kill you!”
A locked door — pock-
marked with six or seven
holes from Harun Ngolo’s
spear — kept the man from
his family, police said.
On Saturday, no door sepa-
rated Harun Ngolo from his
wife. The 66-year-old man
killed Maria Ngolo during a
fight over Father’s Day plans,
stabbed his son Moses Ngolo
when he tried to intervene
and slashed his 3-year-old
grandson, police said.
Originally charged with
simple assault, prohibited
offensive weapons and harass-
arriving downstairs.
“I remember opening the
door and I passed out,” Moses
said. “I was still awake, but I
couldn’t move.”
Police cleared the first floor,
raced up the stairs and found
a door knob coated in blood,
according to the affidavit. It
was locked.
They kicked down the door.
Inside, police found Harun
standing over Maria’s body.
Next to her lay the spear. On
ment in the 2007 case, Harun
Ngolo eventually agreed to
plead guilty to the prohibited
offensive weapons charge.
Former Luzerne County
Judge Michael T. Conahan
ordered Ngolo serve six
months probation, court
records indicate.
Harun Ngolo also agreed to
cease contact with his wife
and son, a stipulation that fad-
ed over the years. As of Satur-
day, no protection from abuse
order had been in effect for
Harun Ngolo, Luzerne County
District Attorney Jackie Mus-
to Carroll said, and he and his
wife had reconnected.
But the family’s past tur-
moil resurfaced Saturday, an
unhappy story told once
before, and one Musto Carroll
said her office will revisit dur-
ing its investigation into
Maria Ngolo’s death.
WB_VOICE/PAGES [T03] | 06/21/10
war-torn Zaire, where refu-
KRISTEN MULLEN / THE CITIZENS’ VOICE
the bed, Noah wailed.
In the door frame, a para-
medic tapped Moses’ face to
wake him.
“Get the kids,” he told the
paramedic. “Where are the
kids?”
■
Moses battled Harun before
in the family home, and Maria
had hedged at leaving the man
with whom she crossed an
ocean.
In 1994, the family escaped
By Patrick Sweet
Staff Writer
WILKES-BARRE — In
between the railroad tracks
and Carey Avenue, a small
block of Simpson Street in
south Wilkes-Barre appears
calm and unassuming.
A mother pulls up in front
of her home Sunday. Kids hop
out of the car in bathing suits.
The night before, though,
the street buzzed with police
and ambulances responding
to a murder on this quiet
street.
At the scene, police found
Maria Ngolo, 62; Maria’s son
Moses Ngolo, 29; and her 3-
year-old grandson with
wounds from a knife fastened
to the end of a pole. In an
upstairs bedroom police
arrested Maria’s husband
Harun Ngolo, 66.
The child was released from
00:32 | SUPERIMPWB
living room,” Moses said. “I
gees and violence spilled over
the border from a raging
Rwandan genocide. Two years
later, they bought the quaint
three-story house on Simpson
Street between railroad tracks
and Carey Avenue, according
to property records.
Yet Moses said his father
drifted in and out of the lives
of his wife and seven children.
He suspected his father suf-
fered from a mental disorder,
a stint on medication and time
in a shelter serving as evi-
dence.
Violence was a facet of life
in the Ngolo home. Often,
Moses intervened, stepping
between his mother and his
father’s blows, he said. At 15,
Moses broke his father’s arm
in an altercation.
person,” Moses said. “After
that, I wouldn’t speak to him.”
Yet, Maria didn’t file for
divorce or leave, telling Moses
she would break it off after
she retired from her job at
Sears.
“No one really understood
until yesterday,” he said. “It
was just screwed up.”
■
Moses didn’t wonder Satur-
day why his father had turned
up again at the house and
didn’t really care.
“He was just sitting in the
the hospital Sunday.
Moses, still in the hospital
Sunday evening, lost a kidney
from his stab wounds.
Maria lost her life.
A family member wearing
latex gloves scrubs the evi-
dence of Saturday night’s
murder off the front entryway
of 28 Simpson St. with Clorox
bleach and a rough sponge.
The relative said the family
didn’t wish to speak at the
time.
Karen Daughtry, a 41-year-
old Social Security employee,
has lived across the street
from the Ngolos since Novem-
ber. The red and blue lights
poured through her windows.
“I have never heard any
commotion out of the house,”
Daughtry said Sunday after-
noon. “Never.”
She said she has only had
limited interaction with her
neighbors and that folks living
just shrugged it off thinking,
‘Whatever.’”
Moses had wrapped up a
busy day spent with his son
and Noah, taking them to the
park and on a shopping trip
for new toys. Entering the
house around 9:30 p.m., Moses
told Maria he was putting his
son to bed.
“She was still up,” Moses
said, “but she was about ready
to go to sleep.”
He handed Noah off to his
g randmother and went
upstairs, where he nestled in
bed to watch “Cars,” his son’s
favorite movie.
What started the altercation
he doesn’t know.
“If I had known that, I’d
have done something,” he
said.
Lying in his hospital bad,
Moses turned his head to the
windows with the blinds
turned down. He sighed and
picked at a bandage on his left
hand.
“She was a saint, and she
died protecting a kid,” Moses
said. “And I feel like it’s my
★
fault. I couldn’t save her. I
couldn’t do more.”
ANDREW STAUB and PATRICK SWEET,
staff writers, contributed to this
report.
mharris@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2110
on the street generally keep to
themselves.
“You never really know
what goes on in another per-
son’s home,” Daughtry said.
“My heart goes out to those
kids.”
THE CITIZENS’ VOICE
Only a few doors down from
the Ngolos, Ann Middleton, a
72-year-old substitute teacher,
said that as recent as last
week, she and Maria sat down
to chat.
“God forgive him is all I
have to say,” Middleton said.
Early last week, Middle-
MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2010 – 3
ton said, Harun and Maria
were cutting the g rass
together. He would begin
mowing and then she would
take a turn. She remembers
Harun being taken away by
police in the past, but that
the husband and wife didn’t
seem like they were having
the same problems when he
returned.