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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Man Beaten to Death by Wheelchair Part in Rockaway Nursing Home

By Gustavo Solis | October 30, 2013 6:20pm
  Thomas Yarnavick, 66, was arrested and charged with second degree murder Wednesday morning.
Thomas Yarnavick, 66, was arrested and charged with second degree murder Wednesday morning.
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NEW YORK CITY — An argument between two nursing home roommates turned deadly when one beat the other with a wheelchair part, police said.

The fight broke out sometime before 1:20 a.m. Wednesday at Beacon Rehabilitation and Nursing Home on Beach 113th Street in Rockaway Beach, according to the NYPD.

The two men were arguing over a privacy curtain that seperates their beds, NBC New York reported.

When officers arrived, they found a 71-year-old man, whose identity was not released, unconscious and unresponsive with severe head injuries. Police say his roommate, Thomas Yarnavick, 66, used a removable part of a wheelchair.

The unidentified victim taken to Saint John's Episcopal Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Police arrested Yarnavick Wednesday morning.

He was charged with second degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.