Mom stabbed to death
Cops arrest son, say he feared mother was poisoning him
A Brooklyn man who dabbled in the local political scene was under arrest Saturday on charges of stabbing his mother to death because he believed she was poisoning him, according to law enforcement sources.
Neighbors called 911 after hearing screams at 52-year-old Inna Deshkovich's 93rd St. apartment near Ridge Blvd. in Bay Ridge around 7:30 p.m. Friday, leading police to find her blood-splattered body marred with multiple neck wounds, according to police and witnesses.
Medics pronounced Deshkovich dead at the scene.
Deshkovich's son, 30-year-old Vlad Deshkovich, claimed that his mother had poisoned him, and police cuffed him Saturday morning, according to sources. He was charged with murder.
City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), who represents the area, sought to put the Deshkovich family's tragedy in the context of local partisan politics.
“It is incredibly concerning to learn that this person was also someone the local Republican Party was grooming to run for office,” Brannan said of Vlad Deshkovich.
Councilman Ari Kagan (R-Brooklyn), who represents an adjacent area that includes Coney Island and Bensonhurst, said the suspect had once volunteered to give out flyers in Bay Ridge. “It was difficult for me to even remember his name,” Kagan told the Daily News.
Kagan said the accused killer was “strange” and once mentioned wanting to run for state Senate. He recalled that Vlad Deshkovich took “300 pictures” with him and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) at a press conference. Kagan said he had saw the suspect in person “maybe three times.”
Inna Deshkovich lived alone at her 93rd St. apartment and worked in health care, said Anne Sgoupis, 82, a neighbor. She was frequently seen out and about in Bay Ridge. “She was a terrific neighbor,” Sgoupis said.
“Whenever I was here, she would go jogging or go to work with a car service or go to the gym.”
A neighbor said his girlfriend heard screams from the victim's apartment the night of the murder. “She heard seven to eight screams but nothing like, ‘I need help,'” said the neighbor, who gave his name as Tim O.
“I guess it was pretty quick because the screams just stopped,” Tim O added.
Sgoupis said that after the slaying, she spotted Deshkovich's ex-husband with his son outside the crime scene. As the victim's ex-husband spoke on the phone, the son appeared to be confessing the murder.
“He knew he did something wrong because he called his father and told him,” said Sgoupis, who lives next door. “The son… went home to his apartment and from there he called his father… and told him that he did something wrong with the mother.”
Inna Deshkovich's son is a financial writer and graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, according to his LinkedIn page.
Neighbors at his Bay Ridge apartment building — about a mile from his mother's home — were stunned to learn of the slaying.
The suspect's neighbors recalled him as a loner.
“He seemed strange. He just seemed off in a way,” said a neighbor who declined to share his name. The neighbor said Deshkovich played “metal music” loud enough that someone living nearby complained.
Another neighbor, Hector Lopez, 46, said the suspect seemed like a “smart guy” and recalled seeing him in building elevator two days before the killing.
“It didn't seem like anything was bothering him,” Lopez said. “I wouldn't figure he would do something like that. He was always cordial.”
“He was telling me he got out of college and was trying to do the right thing in life,” Lopez added.
Sgoupis attributed the suspect's paranoia of his mother's alleged poisoning to drugs and mental illness.
“I believe the son had to have been on drugs or something or mentally something went wrong,” Sgoupis said.
“It's very sad and may she rest in peace.”