An actor who appeared in hit show Ugly Betty has been arrested after allegedly killing his mother with a samurai sword inside her New York home.
Michael L Brea was taken into custody by a SWAT team after police spent 45 minutes trying to get into the apartment when neighbours reported hearing screaming from the home.
Brea had to eventually be tasered by police at the Brooklyn apartment where authorities said they were met with a 'very bloody' scene.
Police said they found Yannick Brea kneeling with fatal lacerations to her head in a blood-spattered bathroom.
Her son was in a nearby bedroom holding the three-foot sword and babbling about religion and repentance, police said.
A neighbour claimed the 31-year-old had taken his mother hostage and could be heard shouting passages from the Bible.
He claimed the actor had been shouting 'repent. repent,' before stabbing his 51-year-old mother with the sword.
There have been claims that woman was found decapitated.
Police had been called to a domestic disturbance at Brea's home prior to the killing.
They had left, but in the early hours of this morning neighbours again called police after hearing screams of help.
Bernard Bren who lives nearby claimed he woke up when he heard screaming.
'It sounded like a lady's voice and after a while I just didn't hear the woman's voice again,' he said.
'I heard this wild screaming', said Gregory Clare who lived below the apartment where Yannick was brutally killed.
'Michael was yelling, 'Repent, repent, sinner, sinner', over and over again', Clare said. 'He was screaming, 'You never accepted Jesus'. It was real loud'.
He added: 'I saw Michael last Saturday. He was asking about my daughter. He was always real kind.
Another neighbour said: 'Her screams woke me up. Screams I'll never forget. I heard [Michael] rambling. He was incoherent'.
Brea, who appeared in one episode of Ugly Betty, was apparently taken out of the Prospect Heights apartment on a stretcher and is currently at Kings County Hospital.
He will undergo a psychiatric assessment before police decide whether to charge him.
Neighbours said they could see splattered blood on the apartment windows.
The accused killer's cousin John Brea was stunned when he heard news of Yannick's death.
'She was a very loving person. She helped to raise all of us', he said, adding that his aunt was a hard-working woman.
When notified of the killing, Brea's ex-girlfriend said: 'Michael had the whole world in his hands. This is a shock'.
Brea is a Haitian-American actor who was also a dancer in film Step Up 3D. He was described by neighbours as 'quiet' and into martial arts.
Brea, who was described by neighbors as 'quiet,' was into martial arts and was a low-level Mason.
He apparently took the murder weapon from a Masonic lodge after a meeting on Monday night and then later used it on his mother, said the suspect's uncle Martial Brea.
His nephew was not cleared to take one of the ceremonial swords which typically has stainless steel blades with a short, black grip.
'Something happened that made him do it,' said Martial. 'The devil entered him.'
The murder suspect has a twin brother Marcel who is a physical trainer who apparently went to the hospital this morning with a friend.
Brea bought a Subway restaurant shop three years ago and he is said to have given away 300 sandwiches for free on Thanksgiving in 2008.
'I remember growing up and my mother was always feeding people who were less fortunate," Brea once told Haitian movie site BelFim.com. 'My parents raised me to always share and to give charity in the name of God.'
