Safetis’ sons from a previous marriage-Dimitris and Nikolaos (Niko)-grew up in Hicksville, Long Island with their mother and grandparents. But other times, she says, he was worried that his kids would break them up. Safetis would often tell her that they would die together, Vrachnos recalls. “I see him everywhere I look in this house,” says Vrachnos. He mended all the things the insurance didn’t cover. He gave her his number, but she didn’t call him until a few months later, when the house on 4705 Utopia caught fire. The first time Vrachnos remembers meeting Safetis was in 2009 at a Waldbaum’s on Francis Lewis Boulevard in Flushing, when the then-50-year-old bearded construction worker in his dirty uniform, as she recalls, heard her speaking in Greek with her daughter. Safetis’ ex-girlfriend, Irene Vrachnos, 50, has lived in the house on Utopia Parkway with her daughter and two sons from a previous marriage for 17 years. “Yianne Safetis my beloved that I Love near and far Died in front of Utopia, once we shared of Love and dispute. Attached to it, a note on red paper reads: A clay pot with three red heart balloons, two flags-one American and one Greek-and photos of a salt-and-pepper haired man smiling, is set as a memorial on the spot where Safetis fell dead. Small red paper hearts rest on the stone walls. The wall-mounted lantern next to the front door is dressed in a black gossamer veil. The house was not where the Safetises lived, but the place appears to mourn for the deceased man. 5 will likely be talked about in court in the months ahead, but what happened in front of 4705 Utopia Parkway is not a simple story. Safetis was rushed to New York Hospital of Queens, where he was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma to the head. Dimitris allegedly struck his younger 16-year-old brother, Niko, in the face first and then bashed his father over the head with the club. According to the criminal complaint, the teenager wrestled a metal car club away from his father, Ioannis Safetis, also known as Yannis. Police arrested the man’s 19-year-old son, Dimitrios (Dimitris) Safetis, and charged him with manslaughter, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. On a cold night in early February, a family dispute on a relatively quiet street in Flushing turned deadly in an instant, leaving a 57-year old man dead outside the front door of a two-story Tudor stone house on Utopia Parkway. (Katerina Iliakopoulou)īy Katerina Iliakopoulou and Mary Kekatos A family snapshot: Irene Vrachnos, Dimitrios Safetis and his father, Yannis Safetis, share a moment after Dimitrios’ high school graduation.
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