Naked Amityville man stabs dad to death during Zoom video conference with AA group
AMITYVILLE, NEW YORK: An Amityville man has been arrested after he allegedly murdered his father while he was participating in a conference call with other people watching. The incident happened on Thursday, May 21, at a residence on Dixon Avenue. According to reports, Dwight Powers was home on a Zoom video conference with 20 other men when his son Thomas Scully-Powers stabbed him.
The 72-year-old father was attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when other participants noticed him fall. Then they saw his son, who appeared to be naked, in the Zoom feed after which the participants became concerned. Soon one of the participants reportedly called the police but since they did not know where Dwight lived, it took other participants about 10-15 minutes to find his name and address. "It looked like bedsheets were being ripped off the bed by a gentleman who appeared to be naked as well as bald, and he had a tattoo on his left arm," a Zoom chat participant, who do not want to be identified, said.
The participant also said that Thomas then placed the bed sheets on the floor "as if he was covering something up". However, when he found that "people were seeing him through the camera, he covered up the camera," the participant added. When officials from Suffolk County Police arrived at the scene, the 32-year-old accused answered the door, slammed it shut and escaped through a window. However, he was soon caught about an hour later at Ketcham Avenue and Cedar Street in Amityville, police said.
As Thomas suffered some minor injuries during his escape attempt, he was taken to a hospital before he was taken to Suffolk County Police Headquarters. Thomas has been charged with second-degree murder. Meanwhile, Det Lt Kevin Beyrer, commanding officer of Suffolk's Homicide Squad, said: "We don't know what they [video call participants] witnessed. There were a number of people on this conference call. We think there were about 20 people. They just noticed him fall off the screen and then they heard heavy breathing. We are looking into whether or not anyone did actually witness the attack." No additional details have been released yet into the case.
In a similar kind of incident in July 2019, a Maryland teenager stabbed and killed his father while they were driving down a road in Bowie. He then reportedly dragged the victim’s body into the woods when the SUV crashed. According to Prince George's County police, 17-year-old Barba Koroma confessed to killing his father, whose name was also Barba Koroma just before their car crashed into a fence on Northview Drive near Allen Pond Park.
Police said they tried to save the victim with the help of medics after finding him in a wooded area near the crash. However, they could not succeed. After questioning the accused, officers found out that the father-son duo was fighting inside the SUV as the elder Koroma was driving him to a library. The teenager told investigators after stabbing his father and he then pulled him from the vehicle and dragged him into the woods nearby.
Meanwhile, the victim’s wife said that she could not believe her son killed his father. "I'm still in shock. I'm in denial. There was no problem between them," Patricia Koroma said, adding their three children were her husband's priority. "He can go the extra mile for anything," she said.