Edward Brown’s dying words to a 911 dispatcher identified his own son as his killer.
The 69-year-old father of three managed to place the emergency call around 12:30 a.m. On Sept. 7 as he was being stabbed repeatedly in his Mastic, Suffolk County, studio apartment. “I’m being murdered. What are you doing to me, Sage?” Brown screamed into the phone, according to an indictment obtained by authorities. A neighbor had already heard a loud bang followed by Brown’s screams, the document states.
Sage Arias-Brown, 33, is accused of barging into his father’s apartment and attacking him with a blade, inflicting more than 40 wounds to Brown’s torso, chest and neck. The younger man was spotted leaving the apartment minutes after the 911 call was placed. Suffolk County deputies arrested him less than half a mile from the scene.
Officers found Brown’s body inside the blood-soaked apartment, according to the indictment. The killing has drawn renewed attention after prosecutors released details of the father’s final, desperate call for help.
“This defendant is accused of viciously taking the life of his 69-year-old father as the victim desperately called the police for help,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a press release announcing the indictment.
Tierney continued, “The facts in this case are heartbreaking. This indictment is an important step towards holding the defendant accountable for the brutal violence he allegedly inflicted on his own parent.”
Arias-Brown was arraigned on Sept. 17 on one count of second-degree murder and was ordered held without bail. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Those who knew Brown remembered a very different man than the one who died in terror. An obituary described him as “a seeker, a philosopher, and a lifelong learner, a deeply spiritual man with a gentle and restless soul.”
“He had a remarkable ability to see the best in everyone around him, and a gift for helping others recognize the best within themselves,” the tribute continued.
The killing came without warning in the early morning hours, a neighbor’s sleep interrupted by violence that ended a life and shattered a family. Prosecutors have not disclosed a possible motive for the attack.
Arias-Brown is due back in court in Suffolk County.