Agoura Hills Teen Is Arrested as Suspect in Death of Older Brother

An Agoura Hills teen-ager who disappeared at the same time his older brother was found shot to death in the family home on New Year’s Eve has been arrested in the murder, authorities said Sunday.

Bradley Minkoff, 18, was taken into custody by Los Angeles police at a friend’s home in North Hollywood late Saturday, three days after Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies obtained a warrant charging him with the murder of his brother, Michael Minkoff, 20, Deputy Rafael Estrada said.

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

The body of Michael Minkoff, an engineering major at Moorpark College, was found at about 11:30 a.m. Dec. 31 on the kitchen floor in the family’s home in the 28900 block of Dargan Street after deputies responded to a 911 call, apparently made by the victim. Investigators found no sign of forced entry at the home.

Deputies said the two brothers had been seen together at the home the day before the shooting, but the younger brother had disappeared and the parents, Barbara and David Minkoff, were vacationing in Mexico.

Initially, sheriff’s homicide investigators said they only wanted to question Bradley Minkoff and had not ruled out the possibility that he also was the victim of a crime.

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

On Jan. 10, sheriff’s investigators named Bradley Minkoff in an arrest warrant obtained in Malibu Municipal Court.

Deputies later told Los Angeles police they believed the suspect was staying with friends in the 5300 block of Vantage Avenue, Police Sgt. Phil Butler said. Using an unmarked car, undercover officers watched the home and arrested Minkoff when he returned to the location at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Butler said.

The suspect was turned over to deputies at the West Hollywood sheriff’s station, where he was booked on suspicion of murder. He was later transferred to Los Angeles County Central Jail, where he was held without bail Sunday.

Deputies said no other arrests were made at the North Hollywood home. They declined to discuss any motive in the shooting or explain why Minkoff had been named as a suspect in the slaying.

The murder and arrest of the younger brother stunned residents on the Minkoffs’ neatly landscaped street, where neighbors gather each Fourth of July for a festive block party and where criminal activity is rare.

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

“We knew it was just a family tragedy.”

“I feel bad for the parents,” said another neighbor. “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.”