Thomas Gilbert Sr.’s Son Thomas Gilbert Jr. Charged In Wall Street Hedge Fund Founder’s Death

Thomas Gilbert Jr., the son of New York hedge fund founder Thomas Gilbert Sr., has been charged with murder for the shooting death of his father, New York Police said Monday. Gilbert Jr. had been taken into custody late Sunday following a standoff with police at the 30-year-old son’s apartment on West 18th Street in Manhattan. He allegedly shot his 70-year-old father hours earlier at Gilbert Sr.’s apartment on the city’s East Side.

Reuters reported police determined the crime scene had been staged. The victim was found shot in the head with the run resting by his left hand.

"The gun laying where it was, it didn't seem it was a self-inflicted wound," New York Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

Gilbert Jr. was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Gilbert Sr. was found dead at his Beekman Place apartment in Manhattan on Sunday. The gun found at the scene reportedly belonged to the younger Gilbert, who was the only person in the apartment besides his father when the shooting occurred, WNBC, New York, reported. Gilbert Sr.’s wife discovered her husband’s body in their bedroom around 3:30 p.m. and called 911.

A doorman reportedly said he saw the elder Gilbert’s son, wearing a hoodie, slip past the apartment building’s front desk that afternoon shortly before the time of the shooting. “I immediately got a bad vibe,” the doorman told police, according to a neighbor who spoke with the New York Daily News. “The kid got into the elevator before I got the chance to pick up the telephone.”

Gilbert Jr. then left the building and barricaded himself in his Chelsea apartment. Investigators fanned out across the neighborhood in search of the younger Gilbert, a manhunt that eventually led them to the 30-year-old’s place on the city’s West Side. Police officers broke down the door of Thomas Gilbert Jr.’s ground-floor apartment, where he was apprehended.

Investigators are working to determine a motive for the slaying as well as how Gilbert Jr. had obtained the weapon. Sources told NBC that Gilbert Jr. may have been struggling financially.

Gilbert Sr. founded his hedge fund in 2011 and amassed $200 million in total assets for the firm. He had 40 years of experience in finance and was co-founder of biotech asset acquisition fund Syzygy Therapeutics, the Associated Press reported.

"He was a pillar on Wall Street -- somebody everyone looked up to," Gilbert Sr.’s neighbor Hector Torres said, according to the AP. "Very nice gentleman. ... They seem like a normal family."