NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Police on Thursday announced that the death of a 74-year-old man inside his girlfriend's Brooklyn apartment in August was ruled a homicide, police said Thursday.
On Aug. 15, officials responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress and discovered Joseph Breina unconscious with his girlfriend inside the seventh-floor residence in Coney Island.
According to police, Breina's 37-year-old girlfriend told officers she was cooking in the kitchen and did not see exactly what happened.
Breina was transported to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn where he died a few hours of head trauma.
The city Medical Examiner ruled the case a homicide four months later.
Breina and his girlfriend were visiting with a married couple inside her apartment when a dispute occurred, officials said.
Authorities said the 44-year-old husband and his wife left after Breina allegedly tried to strike the wife with a bottle of vodka and came back to look for a gold necklace lost during the fight.
Breina was in the shower when the couple returned and he stepped out of the bathroom to confront the pair a second time, officials said.
The girlfriend found an unresponsive Breina, and due to conflicting accounts of what happened, prosecutors initially passed on charges.
It was unclear if Breina slipped and fell on his own or was assaulted by the couple, police said.
