Cops: N.Y. man beat grandmother to death

NEW YORK -- A 48-year-old man was in custody after police investigating a report of an emotionally disturbed man in a Bronx home found his 87-year-old grandmother dead and three other people harmed.

Police told the Wall Street Journal the suspect claimed his grandmother was possessed by Satan, reports the Wall Street Journal. They say he used a bedpost to beat his grandmother to death and injure his mother, step-father and a home health aide, reports the paper.

New York City police say Alice Durso was declared dead at the Throggs Neck neighborhood apartment after police responded to an emergency call at 7:23 a.m. Thursday. Authorities say she suffered head trauma.

Police say a 67-year-old woman with an injured arm, a 55-year-old man with a head injury and a 56-year-old woman with a laceration to her face were all taken to the hospital.

Police say Durso's 48-year-old grandson Erik Perez was taken to a hospital for treatment and evaluation. He was later arrested on murder and assault charges. He was being held by police.

When officers arrived, they found Perez acting erratically outside the house, police said, according to CBS New York. As officers approached, the man went back inside and then barricaded himself inside a room, police said.

Neighbor John Slattery said the man then went out onto a balcony.

"Just throwing, it looks like everything except the kitchen sink, out of his house at the cops," Slattery told CBS New York's radio affiliate 1010 WINS.

After a brief standoff with police, officers were eventually able to take the man into custody.