74-year-old man shoots his brother in the neck and then kills himself with makeshift gun in Borough Park

Thomas Athanasatos fired the pistol at his 63-year-old brother, James, at their 43rd St. home in Borough Park about 12:35 p.m., sources said

A 74-year-old man shot his brother in the neck and then killed himself with a makeshift gun in Borough Park on Wednesday, sources said.


A 74-year-old man killed himself after shooting his brother in the neck with a makeshift gun early Wednesday, police said.

During a heated argument outside his 43rd St. home in Borough Park, Thomas Athanasatos fired the pistol at his 63-year-old brother, James, about 12:35 a.m., police sources and witnesses said.

“The men were arguing in Greek. They sounded drunk,” said neighbor Malky Goldberg, 40. “(James) was walking back to his car when he was shot.”

Witnesses saw James as he staggered to the front stoop and rested his bloodied face in his knees.

“He was just moaning,” Goldberg said. “(Thomas) ran back into his apartment and hid.”

Emergency workers responded to a 911 call and rushed James to Lutheran Medical Center, where doctors removed five pellets from his neck.

Realizing he had been shot, investigators returned to Thomas’ basement apartment about 2 p.m. They found him dead on the floor with a bullet through his head. He had apparently used the same makeshift gun to shoot himself, the sources said.

Neighbors said the siblings had been warring over selling the house, which they had inheritted from their parents. Thomas wanted to keep the house and his brother argued they should sell, neighbors said.

“The fight has been going on for years,” Goldberg said.

But no one believed the feud would end in bloodshed.

“Nobody could dream (Thomas) would do anything like this,” she said. “He was such a sweet man.”