Police say an “Ugly Betty” actor held his mother hostage and then murdered her with a samurai sword while screaming Bible passages Tuesday in Brooklyn.
Neighbors additionally identified the suspect as Haitian-American actor Michael L. Brea, who has had roles on the TV series “Ugly Betty” and movie “Step-Up 3-D.” He was also the face of a campaign for the energy drink Coca-Cola: Full Throttle, according to Haiti Internet movie database website BelFim.com.
Neighbors on the first and third floors of 501 Park Place in Prospect Heights heard screams coming from the apartment on the second floor at about 1:30 a.m.
“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,'” said neighbor Gregory Clare. “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.”
When responding officers arrived, they encountered the mentally disturbed 31-year-old Brea. He was very combative toward the first responders, who had to taser the man in order to subdue him.
Brea was transported to Kings County Hospital with a police guard assigned to him.
Officers say the apartment is extremely bloody and the mother was already dead when they arrived. She was identified as 55-year-old Yannick Brea.
Sources close to the investigation told PIX 11 News that Brea used a samurai sword to attack his mother, whose body was found badly hacked, decapitated and stabbed multiple times in another room.
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