by David Greene

New Year’s morning saw the second homicide in the borough happening the quietest of places. 

Celebratory balloons were still hanging on a staircase of a Throggs Neck home as a small army of police faced a ninety minute standoff with a deranged man. Inside the home, the suspect’s grandmother was found dead.

Officers from the 45th Precinct were called to 633 Hollywood Ave. just before 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, and were met by the suspect identified as Erik Perez of Jamaica, Queens, who pelted officers with household items including several chairs, dishes, even a blow-dryer.

Several squads from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit and Hostage Negotiation Team were called, climbing through fences and backyards surrounding the two-story residence. Residents were ordered to stay in their homes as police confronted the deranged man, dressed in a pair of shorts–across the street from I.S. 192, which was closed for the holiday.

One 52-year-old resident of the block was shocked as she walked out of her home and witnessed the chaotic scene. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said the resident. “This is sick, what is this world coming to?”

As police attempted to negotiate with the man, three people escaped from inside the home. The trio–a 67 year-old woman, a 55-year-old man and 56-year-old woman were rushed to Jacobi Medical Center and treated for injuries that included a laceration to the face.

Perez was subdued with a stun gun, and placed into a waiting ambulance where paramedics treated him for a leg injury. He remains in police custody at Jacobi Hospital awaiting a psychiatric evaluation. Inside the ambulance the suspect told paramedics he is bipolar. Unconfirmed reports stated that the man was quoting scripture and ranting about the coming apocalypse– as he tossed items off the balcony at police.

Once inside police discovered the body of the suspect’s grandmother, 87 year-old Alice Durso. Police had reported that a shotgun may have been in the home, but one police source stated that Durso had suffered severe head trauma and may have been killed with the broken leg of a wooden table.

Durso’s husband Vincent, 75, made headlines after he disappeared on April 20, 2010, after a day of tennis in Crotona Park. Police recovered his 1997 Honda Accord, but his body was never found.

Durso’s murder in Throggs Neck was not the first murder in New York City in 2015. That distinction went to Melrose where Herb Huntley, 26, was shot to death inside the lobby of a building at St. Mary’s Houses. It was the first homicide in New York City.