(ABC NEWS) -- Minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve, a 16-year-old boy allegedly used a semi-automatic rifle owned by a family member to shoot and kill his parents, sister and a family friend inside the parents' home in a coastal city in southern New Jersey, the county prosecutor said.
The teen, whose name has not been released, is in police custody in connection with the shooting deaths of his father, Steven Kologi, 44; mother, Linda Kologi, 42; sister, Brittany Kologi, 18; and a family friend, Mary Schultz, 70, who was residing at the Kologi home in Long Branch, New Jersey, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni and a statement from his office.
The teen's brother and grandfather apparently escaped harm. They "thankfully left the home and came out OK," Gramiccioni said at a press conference Monday morning.
Advertisement - story continues below