Long Island teen charged with assaulting his mother in Dix Hills home

Kemberly Richardson Image
Monday, July 21, 2014
Long Island teen charged with assaulting mother in home
Kemberly Richardson has more from Dix Hills.

DIX HILLS (WABC) -- Police on Long Island have charged a teenager with assaulting his mother in a Dix Hills home where his brother was found dead.

18-year old Charles Okonkwo is charged in the attack on his mother Chinwe, 52, who was found unconscious with severe head injuries.

What is more puzzling is why Charles Jr. allegedly beat his mother so badly that it caused her to be airlifted to the hospital. Charles, Sr. found his wife, who is a prominent doctor both in the New York area and in Nigeria, inside the family's Dix Hills home Saturday evening. The couple's 15-year-old son Bradley was also found dead.

Police say Charles, Jr. took off in a BMW, but he was tracked down not far from the home on 3 Norman Court.

Neighbors say this isn't the first time police have come to the home, and that they've been here "many times before".

Yvonne Russell's grandson, who was best friends with Bradley says things between Charles, Jr. and his little brother had been escalating over the past few months, and that Charles, Jr. was troubled.

With so much ahead of him, Charles, Jr. graduated from Half Hollow Hills High School.

There is no word yet on the cause of death for 15-year-old Bradley.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392.