A quiet Labor Day weekend on Long Island ended in a family ki@lling that investigators say began just after midnight inside a modest apartment in Mastic
Edward Brown, 69, called 911 from his home on Mastic Boulevard at about 12:30 a.m. on Monday, September 7, 2026. He told the dispatcher he had been stabbed. Officers and crews from the Mastic Volunteer Ambulance Company reached the apartment within minutes and tried to keep him alive. They could not. Brown was pronounced dead at the scene.
Suffolk County prosecutors later alleged that the attacker was Brown’s adult son, Sage Arias-Brown, 33, of Lake Ronkonkoma. According to the charging account presented in court, Arias-Brown forced his way into the apartment, stabbed his father repeatedly in the abdomen and chest, and fled. A nearby witness, prosecutors said, heard someone enter, heard Brown screaming for help, and then saw the younger man leave the building.
What makes the case especially grim is the last act of the victim. After being wounded multiple times, Brown still reached a phone and reported the attack himself. He then collapsed while waiting for help. Investigators have not publicly described a fight that immediately preceded the stabbing. The precise sequence inside the apartment, and whether any argument sparked the violence, remains unclear.
Arias-Brown was arrested a short time later, only blocks from the apartment. Detectives from the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad charged him with second-degree murder. He was held overnight at the Sixth Precinct and arraigned Tuesday at First District Court in Central Islip. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail. Another court date was set for Friday.
His lawyer, Katherine Fernandez, told the court that her client has a history of mental illness and an open robbery case. She also said he has no prior criminal convictions and asked that the case proceed through the courts without further public comment from the defense. Those statements do not decide guilt. Under New York law, second-degree murder is a Class A-I felony. A conviction can carry a prison term ranging from a mandatory minimum of 15 to 25 years up to life.
The killing stunned neighbors on a street they described as ordinarily quiet. It was also one of two separate stabbings reported in the Mastic-Shirley area over the same holiday weekend. The other, an assault in Shirley on Sunday afternoon, is not described by police as connected.
Domestic homicides of this kind often leave investigators with a thin public record at the start: a 911 call, a witness who heard screams, an arrest nearby, and a motive that has not yet been stated. That is the picture so far. Police have asked anyone with information to contact the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392 or Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. Calls can be kept confidential.
Until a trial or a plea resolves the charge, Arias-Brown remains the accused, not a convicted killer. What is already established is narrower and harder: a 69-year-old father was stabbed in his own apartment on a holiday morning, managed to call for help, and died before rescuers could save him. His son now sits in custody, facing the most serious charge short of first-degree murder under state law.
The case will turn on what happened in those few minutes after midnight — how entry was gained, how many wounds were inflicted, and whether mental-health history becomes part of a formal defense. For now, Labor Day in Mastic is remembered less for cookouts than for a 911 call made by a dying man.
