Long Island Man Accused Of Killing Father During Video Chat Meeting
AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island man is charged with second-degree murder after police say he killed his father, who was on a video chat at the time.
A Suffolk County Police command post and officers guarded an Amityville apartment complex on Dixon Avenue, where police say 32-year-old Thomas Scully-Powers murdered his 72-year-old father, Dwight Powers.
They were the only two inside the apartment at the time, but police say about 20 people were on the other end of a computer screen and could have witnessed the gruesome stabbing.
One man who didn't want to be identified saw the aftermath.
"A bald, naked man went into this room, ripped bed sheets off the bed, placed them on the ground as if he was covering something up, and then he covers up the camera so nobody sees him," he said.
He says it happened during a Zoom video chat Thursday afternoon for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
"During the meeting, one of the participants was noticed to have fallen out of the screen," said Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer.
Members of the chat called 911, but police say it took them about 10-15 minutes to figure out his name and address. Officers then went to the home.
"A person answered the door, slammed the door on them. By the time they were able to secure the back door, the back of the residence, he had jumped out a window and fled the scene," Beyrer said.
Police say Scully-Powers ran about a mile away from the apartment complex before he was caught and arrested. He was then taken to the hospital for minor injuries from jumping out the window.
Seeing the scene and hearing what happened is troubling for neighbors.
"As soon as we came back, I saw the helicopter, the detectives ... I haven't been able to get into the apartment at all," neighbor Bryan Marsh-Callaghan told CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis.
"A son killing his dad, as a father, it's very sad," neighbor Oscar Henriquez said.
Scully-Powers is charged with second-degree murder, but the question of why he would kill his father still remains unanswered.
