Youth Sought in Slaying of Older Brother

The missing teen-age brother of an Agoura Hills man shot to death on New Year’s Eve, once considered by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies as a possible victim, is being sought as a suspect.

An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday for Bradley Minkoff, 18, in the death of his 20-year-old brother, Michael, sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Stoneman said.

Michael Minkoff, an engineering student at Moorpark College, was found dead on Dec. 31 in the kitchen of the house where the brothers and their parents lived in the 28900 block of Dargan Street. He had been shot several times.

The parents were on vacation in Mexico at the time.

Bradley Minkoff has been missing since the shooting, along with the family’s light blue, 1987 four-door Volvo, deputies said. Initially, deputies said they were looking for Minkoff because he might also have been a victim.

Deputies declined to say what evidence led to Bradley Minkoff. “We have developed information that he was involved--that’s all we are saying about it,” said Sgt. Bill Gaynor, who is assigned to the case.

“We don’t have a motive for it,” Gaynor said. “They were brothers and who knows what happened between them?”

The shooting was discovered after Michael Minkoff apparently placed a call to the emergency 911 telephone number, but he was unable to speak to the operator who answered. Deputies were sent to the address, which is automatically traced by the phone system on all 911 calls.

There was no sign of forced entry and no weapon was found.