A 19-year-old has been arrested and charged for allegedly beating his father to death with a steering wheel lock club during a drunken brawl in Queens.
Police say the incident happened Friday night when police were called to the Utopia Parkway home of victim Ioannis "John" Safetis' ex-wife. The News reports that suspect Dimitrios Safetis, Ioannis' son, and his 16-year-old brother had been visiting their former stepmother, and were partying with the woman's 20-year-old son when things turned into a drunken fight between siblings.
The News continues:
Ioannis — already annoyed because his sons remain friendly with the ex-wife — jumped in his car and drove to the woman’s Utopia Parkway home where he threatened her, his sons and her son, police sources said.
As the level of vitriol escalated, the father bolted for his car and came back waving the club. The elder boy wrestled the deadly weapon from the father and inflicted the fatal blows, sources said.
“I saw them arguing and the next time I looked the man was (lying) in the street,” a neighbor told the Daily News. “They were pumping his chest ... but I could see that it wasn't working. I was pretty sure he was dead."
Cops say the father sustained trauma to the left side of his head and scratches to his face. He was transported to New York-Presbyterian Queens, where he was declared dead.
According to neighbors, Ioannis and his sons had a fractured, difficult relationship: "The dad gets really, really drunk," Oliver Hue, who lives next door to Ioannis in Auburndale, told the Post. "He has words of disappointment for the sons. It’s like a pleading tone. 'Why did you do this to me? Why are you acting like this? You ruined me?'"
Another neighbor told the News that Dimitrios was "a little off. ... It’s a shame now that kid's gonna go to jail for some stupidity. His life is done."
The son has been charged charged with manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
