A career criminal was busted this week in connection to the death of a Brooklyn man who he’d knocked unconscious during a brutal mugging last month, authorities said.
Philip Meyers, 45 – who has a rap sheet dating back to the 1990s, including a manslaughter conviction – was picked up at his Dyker Heights home Monday and cuffed in connection to the deadly March 29 attack on John Sarquiz, 55, cops said.
Sarquiz was standing outside Dean Mini Market on 13th Avenue near 73rd Street in Dyker Heights around 7:45 p.m. when Meyers punched him from behind, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head, authorities and sources said.
The assailant then continued attacking Sarquiz, kicking him in the head before robbing him, police said.
“He was hit in the head from behind and fell to the floor, and then was [repeatedly] kicked in the head and beaten, and his money and his jewelry were stolen,” his heartbroken youngest sister, Christina Sarquiz, previously told The Post.
The assailant ran off, leaving Sarquiz with “serious injuries,” cops said.
He was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where his prognosis was “extremely grim” and he was taken off life support five days later.
John was “especially dedicated to his mother,” and cared for her ever since his father passed away in 2014, Christina said.
In addition to Christina, he left behind two other sisters.
“We’re completely devastated,” she said. “We were absolutely shocked when we heard that something had happened to him.
“And I don’t think we’ve been out of shock since. My mother is strong, but extremely wounded by this.”
John also lived in Dyker Heights and was “very well known in most of the establishments on 13th Avenue,” his sister said.
“He just had friends, you know, simple people who just hang out and play lotto,” she added.
This wasn’t Meyers’ first arrest in connection to a deadly assault, police said.
He was one of three suspects busted in connection to an Aug. 12, 1999 homicide in Brooklyn, authorities said.
Listed as Phillip Mastridge in state corrections records, he was held in state prison on a manslaughter conviction from May 2001 through July 2009, when he was released on parole.
He also served about three months behind bars in 2014 for criminal possession of a controlled substance, records show.
He has “numerous” prior run-ins with the law — with his most recent bust in 2020 for criminal contempt because he violated an order of protection, cops said.
Many of his arrests are for similar domestic matters, police said.
He has also been arrested for assault and grand larceny, cops said.
The victim’s sister said she has been told that the suspect “is known in the neighborhood.”
“We’ve also learned that this person has a record and has been in and out of prison,” she said.
“And in our devastation, we’re deeply disappointed in why society lets recurring criminals out on the streets free to inflict more damage.”
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post