Youth Held in Slaying of Brother : Found: Bradley Minkoff vanished the day the body of his brother was discovered. Initially considered a possible victim, he became a suspect.

An Agoura Hills teen-ager who disappeared after his older brother was shot to death New Year’s Eve in the family’s home has been arrested and charged with the murder, authorities said Sunday.

Bradley Minkoff, 18, was arrested at a friend’s apartment in North Hollywood late Saturday, three days after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies obtained a warrant charging him with killing his brother, Michael Minkoff, 20, said Deputy Rafael Estrada.

The teen-ager will be arraigned Tuesday in Malibu Municipal Court.

Michael Minkoff, an engineering student at Moorpark College, was shot several times and found dead about 11:30 a.m. Dec. 31 in the family’s home in the 28900 block of Dargan Street. Deputies responded to a 911 call apparently made by the victim.

At the time, the young men’s parents, Barbara and David Minkoff, were on vacation in Mexico. Deputies said the two brothers had been seen together at the home the day before the shooting, but they said Bradley Minkoff was missing at the time his brother’s body was found.

Initially, sheriff’s homicide investigators said they only wanted to question the younger brother and did not rule out the possibility that he also was a crime victim. The investigators found no sign of forced entry at the home.

Shortly after the shooting, sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Gaynor said, “There’s always been sibling rivalry” between the brothers. He added, “I don’t know there was enough to kill.”

But on Wednesday, deputies named Bradley Minkoff in an arrest warrant issued from Malibu Municipal Court. Sheriff’s investigators told Los Angeles police they believed Minkoff was staying with friends in the 5300 block of Vantage Avenue, Los Angeles police Sgt. Phil Butler said.

Using an unmarked car, undercover officers watched the apartment and arrested Minkoff when he returned about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Butler said. He was turned over to deputies at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station, where he was held on suspicion of murder. He was later transferred to the Los Angeles County Central Jail, where he was being held without bail.

On Sunday, deputies said no other arrests were made at the North Hollywood apartment. They refused to discuss any motive in the shooting or explain why Minkoff was identified as a suspect.

The violent incident stunned families living on the Minkoffs’ short, neatly landscaped Agoura Hills street, where neighbors gather for a festive block party each Fourth of July and where criminal activity rarely occurs.

“It’s very eerie to come down the block and see their house now,” one neighbor said Sunday. “Here we are in our safe little cul-de-sac. There hasn’t even been a burglary here in 12 years.”

The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the shooting did not prompt residents to worry about their own security. “We knew it was just a family tragedy,” the resident said.

Some neighbors rallied behind the family and declined to discuss the event publicly. Others said the Minkoffs kept mainly to themselves. They said they knew the brothers only from the cars each drove down the block--Michael in a brown Audi and Bradley in a black Corvette. The older brother’s auto was still parked outside the family’s home on Sunday.

“I feel bad for the parents,” said one woman who lives on the block. “They lost two sons: one who’s dead and one who’s been locked up. I wish in my heart that he’s not the one.”

Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss contributed to this story.