{"id":152772,"date":"2026-03-04T19:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/152772\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:41:08","slug":"family-of-queens-man-accused-of-fatally-slashing-neighbors-throat-blames-schizophrenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/152772\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Queens man accused of fatally slashing neighbor’s throat blames schizophrenia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A relative of a Queens man accused of fatally slashing his next-door neighbor\u2019s throat<\/a> says the suspect suffers from paranoid schizophrenia \u2014 and had been inexplicably fixated on the victim for years.<\/p>\n

Dimitrios Manessis was arrested Tuesday night and charged with murder and weapon possession for the slaying of 75-year-old retired public school math teacher George Dourdounas earlier that day. The two men lived in adjacent apartments in Astoria.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The victim] never bothered him,\u201d a family member of the suspect told the Daily News. \u201cIt was more like (Manessis\u2019) mental illness kind of creating this issue, this invisible problem that wasn\u2019t really there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbors said Manessis, 48, had obsessively harassed the victim for years, including bizarrely accusing Dourdounas of not being authentically Greek.<\/p>\n

Dourdounas\u2019s throat was slashed just outside his first-floor apartment on 33rd St. near 28th Ave.<\/a> about 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, cops said. The suspect lives in the apartment next door with his mother.<\/p>\n

Manessis was diagnosed with schizophrenia a few years ago but had never been violent before, his relative said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s never shown any indications of this, so this is very surprising to us. He\u2019s a very sweet person,\u201d said the relative, who wished to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did have some type of fixation with George. But it was spoken about with his social worker and his psychiatrist, so everyone was aware. And we tried to help him as much as we could. He would have good days too. He wouldn\u2019t talk about him all the time. We don\u2019t know what happened or what switched.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD cops investigate the scene where a man was slashed to death on 33rd St. in Astoria, Queens, Tuesday. (Kerry Burke \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

A 55-year-old neighbor who asked to be named only as Ray said he had witnessed Manessis accosting the victim for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d say, \u2018You\u2019re a fake Greek.\u2019 He used a lot of expletives, \u2018F\u2019n this and F that. You\u2019re no good. You\u2019re not a Greek. You\u2019re a fake Greek.\u2019 I\u2019d be standing right there,\u201d said Ray.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very, very mentally ill. There\u2019s obviously something very wrong but what can you do? I spoke to the landlord, I spoke to the neighbors. They said, \u2018There\u2019s nothing we could do. He hasn\u2019t done anything wrong, so what can we do?\u2019 And now this happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray witnessed the suspect, who had retreated to his apartment, being taken into custody hours after the slaying<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear the cops screaming, \u2018Come out, come out!’\u201d Ray said. \u201cAnd he opened the door, he came out. They said, \u2018Turn around! Walk backwards. Walk very slowly. Don\u2019t move. Don\u2019t move fast. Come out slowly.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Manessis\u2019 family said the suspect had been doing everything he could to manage his mental illness\u2014 seeing a psychiatrist weekly and taking medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just sucks \u2026 If he didn\u2019t have this [mental illness] he obviously wouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was a very, very sweet, funny guy. That\u2019s really it. He had this [mental illness] that he couldn\u2019t control. He could only control it to a certain point, as you see from yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and you don\u2019t know how one would feel with those types of thoughts and feelings,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD cops investigate the scene where a man was slashed to death on 33rd St. in Astoria, Queens, Tuesday. (Kerry Burke \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The relative said the good-natured victim brushed off Manessis\u2019 past provocations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew George. He was very, very nice to us, despite how [Manessis] would talk to him. George treated us very nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ray said Dourdounas was a retired high school math teacher who recently earned his PhD and was planning a return to academia as a college professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to teach in college,\u201d said the victim\u2019s neighbor. \u201cHe said, \u2018I got my PhD, and there\u2019s no age limit for retirement and college teaching, so I can apply for college.\u2019 And that\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never bothered anybody,\u201d Ray added. \u201cAnd he came home and he got killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspect\u2019s relative echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very deeply sorry for the loss of him, and for his family,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was our neighbor. We were cordial and kind. It\u2019s just sad. It\u2019s really sad on both parts. We don\u2019t want this to happen at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A relative of a Queens man accused of fatally slashing his next-door neighbor\u2019s throat says the suspect suffers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,122,124,123,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-152772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-county","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-county","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-crime","19":"tag-queens","20":"tag-queens-headlines","21":"tag-queens-news","22":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}