A retired New York policeman apparently gunned down his two teenage daughters and then turned the gun on himself in the family's suburban home, police said on Sunday.

The police chief of Harrison, Anthony Marraccini, said the deaths of Glen Hochman, 52, and his daughters Deanna, 13, and Alissa, 17, on Saturday appeared to be a double murder-suicide, adding the reason for the killing spree was unknown.

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Maraccini said the family's three dogs were also apparently shot to death.

The chief said authorities checked the Hochman home in Harrison, a Westchester County village, after a visitor notified police that no one was getting the door. Detectives found the bodies of Hochman and his daughters at nearly 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday.

Police said Hochman's body was lying in his home's garage while the bodies of 13-year-old Deanna and 17-year-old Alissa were located on the ground level of the place.

The chief said at the time of the shootings, the retired police's wife and his firstborn daughter were not home.

Hochman served for more than two decades at the White Plains police department before recently retiring.

In a statement, the police commissioner of White Plains, David Chong, said the department is horrified and shocked by the "unfathomable tragedy." He added the police department can only pray for the family and noted Hochman served the department and White Plains with integrity and honor.

In 2014, Hochman received a recognition from the department for saving the life of an unresponsive man until medical help arrived.

The ill-fated family's neighbors at the upper middle-class community quietly received news of the shootings on Sunday.

An aircraft pilot who is staying five doors down from the Hochmans, Howard Hollander, 52, said there was no sign at all of any problem, that something like the shootings would happen.

The older daughter, Alissa, was attending Harrison High School, which offered services for grief counseling on its campus.

TagsWhite Plains, double murder-suicide, Glen Hochman, retired cop