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Brooklyn Actor Kills Mom With Samurai Sword
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Nov 23, 2010
Modified Nov 23, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Nov 23, 2010
Modified Nov 23, 2010
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Actor Michael Brea is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Kings County Hospital after fatally stabbing his own mother with a samurai sword early this morning in their Prospect Heights apartment. Neighbors say they heard Brea, known for his role in the TV show "Ugly Betty" and as a dancer in the movie "Step Up: 3D," (though he is not listed on IMDB) shouting passages from the Bible around 1:30 a.m. in their building at 501 Park Place in Brooklyn. "I hear the brother chasing her [his mother] through the house and he's just saying a bunch of like [Bible] passages like, 'Repent, Repent, Repent,'" neighbor Gregory Clare told WPIX. "I heard him chasing her through the house and I hear a loud scream and so I have my father call the cops, call 911."
55-year-old Yannick, Brea's mother, was pronounced dead on the scene, her body hacked, stabbed and decapitated in another room. Brea, 31, was reportedly violent toward police and had to be subdued with a taser. One neighbor said, "I had just dozed off to go to sleep and then I woke up to somebody screaming. It sounded like lady's voice and after I while I just didn't hear the woman's voice again."
Brea, a Hatian-American native New Yorker, reportedly did not give any previous indication that he was mentally ill; neighbors say he and his mother were "quiet people." He once told BelFilm in an interview, "I remember growing up and my mother was always feeding people who were less fortunate. My parents [Marcel and Yannick] raised me to always share and to give charity in the name of God!" He and his brother also owned a Subway restaurant in Brooklyn, and two Thanksgivings ago he gave out 300 turkey foot-long sandwiches for free.
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prospect heights
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Jaya Saxena
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