Police are still investigating the circumstances that led to an attempted murder and a murder-suicide this week in Utica, all with one alleged central figure. YNN's Andrew Sorensen tells us what they've found so far.

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UTICA, N.Y. -- The beginning of the story that police say ended on McVean Street Wednesday night is harrowing enough.

"His world was caving in around him and that proved to be too much for him to handle," Utica Police Investigator Lt. Michael Zdanowicz said.

"A female victim was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, suspect Jerry McNair, aged 37 of Utica," Utica Police Chief Mark Williams explained.

But police said in a press conference Thursday Jerry McNair was far from done when he tried to kill his girlfriend in North Utica Monday. They say he strangled her and then shot her in the back of the head. She survived, but couldn't tell police until Tuesday what happened. Police didn't release a statement until Wednesday.

"Part of the reason now you'll see why as to why we were so quiet at the beginning, is we did not want him to know she was still alive," Zdanowicz said.

Zdanowicz explained they didn't want him to try to finish the job.

"We tried to keep it quiet so that we could track him down before there was unfortunately another incident, which there was," he said.

But police say a potential murder charge on top of his other crimes were too much, including, "[A] sex abuse charge I know he had, he also had an outstanding warrant for his arrest for a drug charge that just came out of city court," according to Zdanowicz.

"The information received was that he was armed and dangerous and that he was not surrendering to police alive," Williams said.

McNair had fled to a house on McVean Street and holed up with an ex-girlfriend, Petra Gonzalez.

"I think we all had a very bad feeling of what could have taken place with this gentleman," Zdanowicz said.

After more than 24 hours of surveillance and trying to start talks, their feeling was confirmed. When they entered the house around 9:30 Wednesday, McNair was dead.

They also found Gonzalez, "who also died of a gunshot wound to the back of her head," according to Williams.

But for police the story is just the beginning, as they unravel more of the details that unraveled Jerry McNair.

Police are not releasing the identity of McNair's first victim because of their policy on domestic violence cases.