A former inmate admitted to stabbing a neighbor to death and then knifeing the dead man’s dog in an uncontrollable attack inside his Brooklyn apartment, according to police and court records.
According to authorities, Anthony Sabato, 37, a man with 17 prior arrests, was arrested on suspicion of stabbing and killing his neighbor, Thomas Makarchik, also 37, with a knife inside a supportive housing complex on Sands Street in central Brooklyn around 8 a.m. Friday.
According to the complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Sabato demanded that Makarchik hand over his cellphone and “other property,” then grabbed a knife and brandished it.
Police said Makarchik suffered fatal stab wounds to his torso.
He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died from his injuries, police said.
Sabato then used the same knife to stab Makarchik’s pit bull dog in the upper left shoulder, according to police and the criminal complaint.
The dog was treated at a local veterinary hospital and is expected to recover.
After the vicious stabbing, Sabato was seen on surveillance video clutching a knife and running into his apartment with his bag, according to court documents.
He was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, unlawful possession of stolen property, unlawful possession of a weapon and torturing or injuring an animal, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the criminal complaint, Sabato admitted to stabbing both the neighbor and the puppy, and a Brooklyn judge ordered him held without bail.
Authorities said Sabato had been arrested 17 times, including in 2017 in Manhattan on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.
He served about two years in prison between May 2018 and July 2020 for attempted assault and illegal possession of a weapon, according to state Department of Corrections records.
His parole expired in April 2021.
