Zoom call participants witness man’s stabbing
A Long Island man suspected of fatally stabbing his father on a live Zoom call confessed to the caught-on-camera killing after police found him trying to wash blood off his body, prosecutors said yesterday.
Thomas Scully-Powers, 32, was arraigned via video and ordered jailed without bail after pleading not guilty to a murder charge in the attack on Friday that left 72-year-old Dwight Powers nearly decapitated as horrified call participants scrambled to dial 911.
District Attorney Tim Sini said Scully-Powers told police he stabbed his father about 15 times and used several knives because the blades kept bending.
An autopsy showed that Powers had multiple stab wounds to his back, neck and torso, and police found multiple knives at the scene.
‘‘By the defendant’s own admissions, he brutally stabbed his own father repeatedly until he was certain he was dead,’’ Sini said, calling it a ‘‘shocking and disturbing’’ case.
Prosecutors say Scully-Powers attacked his father at their Amityville apartment as the older man sat down for a Zoom video meeting, beating him before returning to the room with a knife. That prompted one of about 20 other people in the meeting to call 911.
Such virtual meetings have become ubiquitous during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing people to see and talk to each other in groups without the risk of physical proximity. Because many meetings are recorded as they unfold, there’s a chance prosecutors will be able to obtain video of the attack taking place.
After an apparent attempt to clean up, Scully-Powers jumped out a second-floor window and fled on foot as police officers arrived. Scully-Powers ran to a deli, swiped several bottles of Dr Pepper and tried using the soda to wash blood off his body, prosecutors said.