A Pennsylvania man attacked and killed his neighbor this week using a knife and a chain saw while wearing a mask and costume like the one from the movie “Scream,” officials said.
The man then returned home and watched a movie until police came, according to a criminal complaint from the Pennsylvania State Police.
Police said Zak Moyer, 30, surrendered after the attack and was taken into custody without incident. He has been charged with criminal homicide and is being held at the Carbon County Correctional Facility.
Lehighton Borough police and later state police responded to an active assault incident Monday in Carbon County, in which a man attacked another man using a knife and a chain saw.
Officials found Edward Whitehead Jr., 59, who lived at the home, had been “struck” in the head with the weapons by a man who was “wearing a mask and a black costume-like garment, consistent with the ‘Scream’ movie character,” according to the criminal complaint.
Whitehead was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, state police said. He had cuts on his right arm and on the right side of his head above his eyebrow, wounds on his hands that were “consistent with defensive wounds,” and “a large bleeding wound to the right side of the head,” the complaint said.
Security video showed the suspect leaving Whitehead’s home through the back door and entering the rear door of a home next door, where neighbors said Moyer lived, the complaint said.
Police established a perimeter around Moyer’s home and communicated with him through a notebook, the complaint said.
Moyer’s sister told police Monday that her brother told her a week ago that he wanted to kill Whitehead, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Moyer told police that he had gone to the family’s house Monday with a knife and a chain saw while wearing the “Scream” costume to scare them. Asked about the costume and the weapons, police said, Moyer admitted he had planned to kill Whitehead.
Moyer also admitted to stabbing Whitehead in the head, returning to his home to watch a movie until police arrived, and hiding the chain saw in the attic and the knife in his desk drawer, according to the criminal complaint.
Police said in a news release that the investigation is active and there is no threat to the surrounding community.
Mother recounts brutal attack on daughter in Queens and heroic neighbor who came to the rescue
Mother recounts brutal attack on daughter in Queens and heroic neighbor who came to the rescue
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NEW YORK — A mother spoke out Sunday after saving her daughter from an attack right outside of their apartment door in Queens.
The attacker, who was reportedly hiding in the stairwell, surprised the teenager.
Ring camera video shows the moment a man jumps from a stairwell and grabs the terrified teenager, who was returning home from walking the dogs.
“Just the most horrific scream you can think of. It just … a stump and a scream,” Adriana Alvarez said.
Alvarez heard her daughter’s screechy screams.
“I run out and I see her being dragged by this man down the fourth floor,” Alvarez said.
Her momma bear instincts kicked in.
“From the fourth to the first floor, we were just tumbling, fighting,” Alvarez said.
The attack happened on Jan. 23 at around 9 a.m. at their Astoria apartment on 25th Avenue. Her daughter’s attacker took off outside. Neighbor Gus Bougas heard Alvarez and the commotion.
“She came running out of the building, started screaming my name,” Bougas said.
Bougas grabbed the suspect, who was waiting for the mother and daughter across the street.
“We were touching, pushing each other,” Bougas said. “I put my foot in front and threw him on the floor and landed on top of him. Tried to keep him restrained until the cops came.”
Police said the suspect, 25-year-old George Vassiliou of Queens, was arrested and charged. Alvarez said her daughter worked with him at a local grocery store until things got weird.
“He started following her and started hiding behind cars,” Alvarez said.
The assault left the 18-year-old bruised and Alvarez badly injured.
“I had an orbital eye fracture,” Alvarez said. “I still have no feeling. There is a nerve damage. I had a dislocated shoulder, dislocated elbow.”
But she’s alive and eternally grateful to her neighbor.
“He’s definitely my hero,” Alvarez said. “God forbid if he wasn’t here, he would have ran away again.”
New footage shows son of YouTube mom Ruby Franke getting help from neighbor after escape – CBS News
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Newly released footage from the Washington County Attorney’s Office shows the moment YouTube mom Ruby Franke’s 12-year-old son walked up to a neighbor’s house to ask for help after escaping his home.
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A former neighbor of a man accused of kidnapping a woman and holding her captive in a makeshift cell said the man also threatened him by text, which lead to seek a restraining order.
The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, lived in the same Vancouver, Washington, cul-de-sac as 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi around August 2022.
Zuberi has been charged in the kidnapping case and has been linked to at least four violent sexual assaults in four states, the FBI said. Officials fear he may have other victims.
The former neighbor said Zuberi stayed in the Washington State home for about six month, rented out rooms without notifying the landlord, kept pit bulls that ran loose and parked an RV camper in the driveway in violation of community rules.
Fire and police departments responded to the home more than once, according to the neighbor, who didn’t know the reason for the visits. A letter from the Prairie Park Commons Homeowners Association includes pictures of authorities on scene on Dec. 13 and Dec. 17, 2022.
The neighbor, who was a volunteer on the homewners’ association, said he documented Zuberi’s actions and worked to get Zuberi evicted.
“I would describe him as intimidating,” the neighbor told NBC News. “I tried to limit all communications and stay as far as possible from Negasi.”
The neighbor said that in March a young couple moved into Zuberi’s home and that he warned them about Zuberi, who they said was misleading potential tenants by telling them he owned the home and collecting security deposits.
The neighbor said that shortly after, Zuberi sent him a text message, warning, “I’m going to f— you up,” according to court documents.
This prompted the neighbor to seek a restraining order against Zuberi. In the court documents, he alleges that Zuberi had “previously threatened other neighbors.”
A few days later, Zuberi also filed for a restraining order against the neighbor, claiming he received a threatening message that used the n-word. Zuberi alleged the neighbor had harassed him for as long as he lived in the home.
The neighbor denies using a racial slur.
Both restraining orders were eventually dropped because of “non-appearance,” court documents state.
The neighbor said that after many situations involving Zuberi, the neighborhood no longer felt safe.
“We couldn’t even enjoy our community anymore, it was no longer safe after that,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep for like six months.”
Zuberi moved to Oregon following the incident that prompted the neighbor to file a restraining order.
Zuberi — who goes by the aliases “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche” and “Justin Kouassi” — was arrested in Nevada and accused of kidnapping a sex worker in Seattle and taking her to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where she was kept in a cinderblock cell he made in his garage. The woman was able to escape and flagged down a motorist for help, officials say.
A cinderblock cell in a home in Klamath Falls, Ore.FBI Oregon
He’s been charged with one count of interstate kidnapping.
Zuberi’s Washington state neighbor said he was “absolutely shocked” to hear the news.
“I always had a feeling that something was wrong, but not to this extent,” he said.
Zuberi also allegedly attacked, abused and threatened to kill another woman and their two children before she sought a protective order against him three years ago.
“He physically attacks me, he hits me, he brakes (sic) and throws things, he screams at the kids and me … we get woken up every night from him being drunk and loud and scares us,” the woman wrote in a 2020 petition for a domestic violence restraining order.
Zuberi’s neighbor says he remembers seeing a woman who lived at the Washington state home and appeared to travel with Zuberi, but wasn’t sure if that was his partner.
Zuberi’s lawyer in Oregon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Doha Madani
Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.
The neighbor of a man accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and holding a woman captive in his Oregon garage said Wednesday that nothing seemed out of the ordinary at the home and that the suspect once saved her pet during a near-lethal dog fight.
Negasi Zuberi, who authorities said is linked to at least four violent sexual assaults in four states, moved to the quiet suburban neighborhood in Klamath Falls with his wife and two children roughly six months ago, neighbor Melanie McClure told NBC News.
Zuberi, 29, was charged with one count of interstate kidnapping in federal district court in Oregon after authorities arrested him on July 16. He was taken into custody after a standoff in the parking lot of a Nevada Walmart, according to a statement of probable cause unsealed Wednesday.
The FBI’s Portland Field Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying potential victims of Negasi Zuberi, who has lived in more than 10 states.FBI Oregon
McClure, an occupational therapist who has lived in the neighborhood since 2016 and lives next door to the home, said that when she introduced herself to Zuberi, he identified himself as “Sakima” and said he’d just moved to the area from Colorado.
“He’s not overly friendly, but he’s not a jerk or anything like that,” said McClure, 45, recalling their conversation. “Nothing stood out to me that would speak to anything like what he’s being accused of.”
Zuberi also went by “Justin Hyche” and “Justin Kouassi,” federal authorities said Wednesday.
A couple of months after the family moved in, McClure’s two dogs — a Doberman pinscher puppy and a much smaller Pomeranian-husky mix — got in a fight in her front yard, with the larger animal clutching the smaller dog’s collar in its mouth and choking him, she said.
Zuberi “was willing to step in without question and said, ‘you want help?’” McClure recalled. “I was desperate.”
When they finally got the smaller dog loose, he was nearly unconscious and Zuberi administered chest compressions, McClure said.
“He saved him,” she said. “He brought him back for me.”
Afterward, McClure said, she left the family a bottle of wine and a thank you card.
“I guess I’m surprised that I didn’t notice anything,” McClure added. “Here’s the thing — anybody can hide anything.”
McClure never learned what Zuberi did for work but said he didn’t appear to follow a 9-5 schedule. His wife was a “very sweet” mother who had no idea about her husband’s alleged crimes, she said.
“She’s trying her best to navigate this,” McClure said.
Efforts to reach Zuberi’s wife were unsuccessful.
Zuberi’s landlords, Klamath Falls Mayor Carol Westfall and her husband, Kevin Westfall, said in a statement Wednesday that they were “shocked and dismayed by what occurred.”
The couple filed a residential complaint for eviction on July 21, giving 24 hour notice to Zuberi and “all others” that there had been “personal injury, substantial damage, extremely outrageous act or unlawful occupant” at the property.
In the statement, the Westfalls commended local, state and federal police as well as the woman who authorities said escaped a makeshift cinder block cell where Zuberi allegedly held her captive.
According to the probable cause statement, Zuberi posed as a police officer when he allegedly approached the woman, a sex worker, in Seattle on July 15 and pointed a stun gun at her, saying he needed to take her into custody.
Zuberi is accused of placing her in leg irons and handcuffs and sexually assaulting her while driving her to his home, roughly 450 miles south of Seattle, the statement says. Once there, the woman slept but “briefly awoke to the realization that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape,” the statement says.
“Police say she beat the door with her hands until they were bloody in order to break free,” Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephanie Shark with the FBI Portland Field Office told reporters Wednesday.
Home of suspect Negasi Zuberi in Klamath Falls, Ore.Google Maps
Once outside, she flagged down a passing motorist who called 911, according to the statement.
When authorities searched Zuberi’s home, they found a handwritten note titled “Operation take over” with the bullet points “leave phone at home” and “make sure they don’t have a bunch of people in their life. You don’t want any type of investigation,” the statement says.
Shark said Zuberi was linked to four additional violent sexual assaults in at least four states, though she did not disclose where those cases were.
He has lived in12 states — California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Alabama and Nevada — over the last decade and may have used several methods to target victims, including drugging drinks and impersonating a police officer, the FBI said.
The agency launched an investigation website where potential victims or others with information related to the case can fill out a form to offer more information.
Tim Stelloh
Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Marlene Lenthang, Andrew Blankstein, Valeriya Antonshchuk, Doha Madani and Donna Mendell contributed.
