Family homicide at 501 Park Place last night

A fairly gruesome murder took place last night at 501 Park Place (between Grand/Classon). 31 year old Michael. L. Brea killed his mother with a samurai sword. Apparently he is mentally disturbed but has been a working actor.

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-samurai-sword-son-mother,0,490069.story

That's horrific :-(

wasn't there another samurai sword murder in crown heights within the past few years?

who's gonna tell the reporter that it happened in crown heights, not prospect heights?

Both are very good questions.

My quick research indicates that encounters with swords in NYC are not especially rare, and can sometimes be even survived:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2009/10/reggae_singer_s.php

So firstly, so sad. Mental illness, when uncared for, hurts not only that individual but so many others.

Secondly, I live on Park near Classon as well. Of course I got emails from my mom and mother-in-law. It reminded me immediately of something that happened a few weeks ago. The neighbors upstairs are not always so...nice...to one another. I don't mean just screaming, but throwing things, screams, things breaking, etc. In the past, the girl across the hall would go over and take the woman in to keep her safe but the girl has since moved away.

A few weeks ago they were at it -- and it was really scary from my spot downstairs. I know everyone fights, but this was scary. I went up the stairs when it sounded like the door was open, but when I got 3/4 of the way up the door slammed. I don't know them, so I didn't want to try to get in the middle of it with a huge guy so I called 911. They sent the police over...75 MINUTES LATER. Now, I know that there are lots of other things going on in the area, but this was like 11am on a Thursday, not a busy Friday night. Everyone was alive and the man had left the house by the time the police came, but it freaked me out to think...what if things hadn't been ok? Over an hour later is way too late to do much good. Scary.

75 minutes later?? Is the the typical response for "domestic" violence calls?

The New York Times and the Daily News both call the location of this murder Prospect Heights. Is the Brookynian's opinion simply irrelevant?

Capt. Planet wrote:

The New York Times and the Daily News both call the location of this murder Prospect Heights. Is the Brookynian's opinion simply irrelevant?

Absolutely.

....and you forgot to mention the NY Post.



http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/tv_actor_in_EA9dOyPT2xcsP7bT7TnbUJ

It is as if people just use each medium to kill time and entertain themselves. (gasp, not that)

Yet another tragedy stemming from untreated mental illness.

This is a very sad story for many reasons and all people on this board can do is nitpick about neighborhood boundaries? Pathetic.

a religious person would say the devil made him do it. others would say the guy was nuts.