Resident Is Killed at Queens Nursing Home

One preferred it open. The other, identified by the police as Thomas Yarnavick, wanted it drawn between them for more privacy.

That disagreement exploded into violence around 1:20 Wednesday morning when, the police said, Mr. Yarnavick, 66, took a piece of a wheelchair and severely beat his 71-year-old roommate.

The victim, whose name was not immediately released by the police because by Wednesday evening his family had yet to be notified, died a short time later at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital.

The killing shook the community of residents and staff at the Queens nursing home where, nearly a year ago to the day, storm surges from Hurricane Sandy lashed the three-story, 120-bed home, previously known as Ocean Promenade. In the year since, repairs and upgrades disrupted life at the home, on Beach 113th Street.

Those renovations were recently completed and life was returning to normal, Aaron Lichtman, a Beacon spokesman, said. Until it was interrupted by the deadly attack.

“I keep likening it to something that happens in that wonderful small town where everyone is in shock and in mourning,” Mr. Lichtman said. “That something like this could happen is just mind-boggling to everybody.”

It was not immediately clear what pushed the conflict between the two roommates, who both arrived at the nursing home in July, into violence at a time when most residents would be asleep.

Shortly before the killing, nursing home staff members made a routine check on the room and saw Mr. Yarnavick in a wheelchair, the police said. Mr. Yarnavick, although he could walk, frequently used a wheelchair to get around.

Minutes later, the police said, he took a detachable piece of another wheelchair and struck his roommate. It was not clear if the victim was asleep when the attack started.

Mr. Yarnavick, whom officials described as frail but who did not appear to have any diagnosis that would point to violence, was taken into custody by the police at the scene and was later charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon — the piece of wheelchair used in the killing.

The police said he made statements to detectives indicating that he attacked his roommate for opening the curtain.

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