A 41-year old man is awaiting arraignment on charges that he killed his 67-year-old mother in their Upper East Side apartment this weekend.
All the trappings of wealth, all the security of full-time doormen could not prevent tragedy at 45 East 85th Street.
It's a pre-war co-op on quiet block between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue that is now the scene of a grisly crime.
"I'm very surprised. This neighborhood, this area, it's untouchable," said neighbor Ron Mole.
Crime scene technicians carried out bags of evidence from apartment 7B after police say 41-year-old Jonathan Schwartz hacked his own mother, Barbara Schwartz, to death.
Sources tell Eyewitness News the unemployed man has a history of mental illness and routinely fought with his mother.
But Saturday's disagreement turned deadly.
At around 5 p.m., published reports say Jonathan Schwartz grabbed a knife from the kitchen, stabbed his mother to death in her bedroom and then called 911, turning himself in.
It isn't clear yet what sparked the fight. But it is clear the bloody crime has stunned this community in one of the nation's safest neighborhoods.
"It's dreadful. It's dreadful anyplace it happens," one neighbor said.
"They got into an argument and he went haywire. It's too bad. I think there's something really wrong with this guy," Mole said.
Schwartz is charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
