Brooklyn parents, whose son is charged in their slays, tried to get him mental health help
NEW YORK — The elderly couple stabbed to death in their Brooklyn home had been trying to get mental health help for their son now charged with their murders, neighbors told the New York Daily News on Monday.
Meyer Sperber, 48, has been charged with murder and weapon possession in the Saturday double killing on a typically quiet Borough Park block, police said Sunday.
A neighbor who is a close friend of the family described the suspect’s escalating illness leading up to the slayings of the well-liked victims.
Meyer Sperber’s mother planned on looking after him over the weekend.
“The family wanted to call the ambulance, but the mother said she could handle it for the weekend, and after the weekend they would make an appointment with the psychiatrist,” said the family friend, who declined to give his name. “Then what happened happened.”
On Saturday, cops responded to a 5:20 p.m. 911 call for an assault at the family’s apartment on 45th St. near 12th Ave. When officers got there, Hatzolah medics were in the process of rushing Jacob Sperber and his wife, Rachel Sperber, both 75, to nearby Maimonides Medical Center with numerous stab wounds. They could not be saved.
Their son barricaded himself in the apartment for more than an hour before surrendering, police said.
“Meyer went through a few big crises in his life,” the family friend said.
“He fell into depression. He was institutionalized for months, maybe two or three times. Then he came out. He was on medication and was seeing psychiatrists. When the meds didn’t work, from time to time they used to take him into the hospital.”
Shocked neighbors mourning the victims, who they say have seven other children, described their block as quiet and crime-free.
“I pray with him every day of the week and on Shabbat,” Yitzchok Shlomo Drezdner said of Jacob Sperber. “I knew him very well for the last 12 years.”
“He was a special, kind person,” Drezdner added.
“I was yesterday by the funeral, they mentioned that years ago someone came from Israel with an illness that was contagious and no one wanted to take him in. Jacob and his wife took him in. In the middle of the night he was throwing up blood, and Mrs. Sperber was cleaning up the blood herself.”
“Mrs Sperber was talking taking care of a blind woman, walking with her,” he added. “They were very, very fine, respected people.”
Jacob Sperber’s parents met at Auschwitz and were Holocaust survivors, said neighbor Rabbi Pinchus Citron. Sperber’s mother died when he was 9, leaving him with a soft spot for teens who had difficulties.
“There were a lot of struggling teens through the years that came into the shul. He always used to visit and talk with them for hours and hours. He would advise them on the challenges they went through,” said Citron. “Every morning his wife used to send 10 to 15 sandwiches. They would look like they came from a restaurant. … They would give them to kids he was mentoring.”
“If somebody needed a room to sleep, he had a room in the basement dedicated for guests,” he added. “He took in guests even for long periods of time. There were people who came from Israel 15, 20 years ago, they needed treatment from a hospital and he served them like he was their nurse, him and his wife both.”
The couple’s generosity extended to their own son after he divorced, said neighbors.
“Part of his goodness was that he took his son into his house, this was part of the plan from heaven,” Drezdner said of the slain dad. “The whole block, the whole neighborhood is shaken up.”
Friends and neighbors said Meyer Sperber had recently lost his job, exacerbating his mental health issues.
“Meyer was a divorced person, had seven kids. Life was too hard for him. He lived with his father for the last few years,” said a friend of the suspect who declined to give his name. “He came to shul every weekend. I saw him, I knew him. He was a disturbed person. He had a lot of life issues.”
“They were special people,” neighbor Schmiel Weiss said of the Sperbers. “It’s unfortunate that this is how their life had to end. But we don’t know God’s plans.”
“I feel like this is a real real big tragedy. This never happens here,” said a 17-year-old neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous. “I was shocked. We are all in big shock.”
It wasn’t clear what sparked the bloodshed. Police said the suspect has no prior arrests.
Meyer Sperber was awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Monday.
