A man accused of shoving his mother to her death in a Manhattan park had a history of violence and was sent away for treatment just months before the brutal killing, sources told The Post.
Miguel Duval, 22, viciously beat 44-year-old beautician Vianel Garcia with a stick and a rock after she landed at the bottom of an embankment at Riverside Park, according to law enforcement sources.
“Miguel had problems. She was trying to help him, like any mother would who was trying to help her son. I’m not a doctor or anything, but he seemed to have mental health problems. People say schizophrenia, but I really can’t say,” a neighbor of Garcia’s East Harlem beauty salon told The Post.
Police said Duval killed his mother after a verbal dispute turned physical.
He allegedly pushed her down the hill before fatally beating her with a rock and stick, sources told The Post.
“He grew up here, and he was a good kid. But around 18, he became different. He got weird. Maybe he was taking medication, and at that age said, ‘I don’t need this s–t,’” the neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
According to the neighbor, Garcia sent her disturbed son to the Dominican Republic for some form of treatment. Something went amiss and he was shipped back to New York, where sources said he continued causing trouble, the friend said.
Last month, he was arrested for kicking another person in the head, according to sources.
Duval was apparently living at a men’s shelter in Washington Heights at the time of the murder.
“When he came back and he looked totally different. He’d cut his hair and he’d put on all this weight, and I said, ‘What happened to you – you went from night to day.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ like he was going to hit me, and I’m like, I’m not messing with this guy again. You don’t stop me and I won’t stop you. That was the last time I spoke to him,” the neighbor said.
Another local said Garcia had called the police on her only son of four kids in the past, neighbors said.
While the murder was shocking, some told The Post that the perpetrator was less surprising.
“When I was first told this morning, I thought it was [Garcia’s] mother. And then I found out it was her, and then I found out what happened, and said, ‘Whoa,’” neighbor Noel Bermudez, 34, said.
“I was in shock. I was at a loss for words. Everyone was, throughout the whole block. Everyone in the community came here to do their hair. I never had a problem with Miguel, but he had his issues.”
Garcia’s East Harlem home was packed with mourners Monday.
Several blocks away, a shrine of candles and flowers was erected outside Vianel Beauty Salon, the shop she had run for years and where she had built a significant clientele — one regular customer broke down upon finding the shuttered salon Monday and hearing of the news.
“I don’t know exactly what happened with her son, but she asked for help with the police department because he was struggling with mental illnesses,” Katiria Mojica, 45, said.
“The family is great. We definitely need to pray for the family, because in this community she’s been around all areas of the community doing people’s hair … She was a very loving, helpful person, a very giving soul.
“We just have to keep her and her son in our prayers. She would want us to pray for her son as well. She loved her son and her son loved her. This kid is not a malicious kid. His intent was not to kill her. It’s tragic, tragic, tragic. I’m just so upset.”
Duval has been charged with second-degree murder, police said.
