Early this morning, neighbors of actor Michael Brea (Step-Up 3D) claimed they heard screaming coming from inside his mother's apartment. "Michael was yelling, 'Repent, repent, sinner, sinner,' over and over again," neighbor Gregory Clare told the Daily News. "He was screaming, 'You never accepted Jesus.' It was real loud." Neighbors quickly called 911, and police eventually found Brea's mother, Yannick, dead of stab wounds allegedly inflicted by Brea with a samurai sword. Brea is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation, but neighbors are saying police waited almost an hour before entering Brea's apartment, and the wait cost Yannick her life.
Gregory's father Clinton Clare told the Post, "They came 15 minutes [after the call] and would not knock down the door. They just kept standing there for 45 minutes. I think she’d be alive if they hadn’t taken so long." Others say they could year Yannick groaning from inside the apartment as cops knocked on the door. Neighbors claim they told the cops to bust down the door, but they wouldn't listen. "They just kept saying protocol this and protocol that," said Gregory Clare. "Now a woman's dead who should be alive if only the police would have listened."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he believed officers handled the situation properly. "It's a barricaded situation and that is handled by the Emergency Services Unit. What happens in a barricade situation is that responding patrol officers, if possible, wait for the Emergency Services forces to arrive," he said, and also noted Brea was holding a Bible when police entered. Brea has no criminal record, and neighbors describe him as a martial-arts enthusiast who never showed any violent tendencies. One neighbor told NY1, "I would say he was a down-to-earth, cool. hard working person.... I couldn't see this coming at all."
