NEW YORK (AP) -- A $35 ticket for parking too near a fire hydrant led police to a reclusive postal worker who was arraigned today as the "Son of Sam," the night stalker who terrorized the city for more than a year with his deadly .44-caliber revolver.

"We have him," a police spokesman said after the arrest of David Berkowitz.

Later, the smiling 24-year-old Berkowitz was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court for the murder of Stacy Moskowitz, the sixth and latest victim of the killer.

Appearing before Criminal Court Judge Richard Brown, Berkowitz was held without bail and was ordered sent to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric examination.

Brown ordered that Berkowitz be segregated from other prisoners.

Eugene Gold, the district attorney for Brooklyn, announced that a grand jury would begin considering the case later today.

In a courtroom jammed with reporters and police officers, all of whom were searched with a metal detector before entering, Berkowitz was arraigned for the murder of Miss Moskowitz.

Police arrested Berkowitz late Wednesday at his apartment house on a back street in Yonkers. Some neighbors described him as "a nice guy" who kept to himself. But others accused Berkowitz, who claimed to be an auxiliary New York City policeman, of writing threatening letters to them.

As Berkowitz walked from the apartment building at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night and climbed into his car, police detectives surrounded him and asked who he was.

"I'm Son of Sam," he reportedly said, adding, "Okay, you've got me."

The New York Post said the alleged killer was on his way to claim more victims when he was apprehended. The newspaper quoted Berkowitz as telling police he believed they were closing in on him and that he wanted to "go out in a blaze of glory."

Police seized two shotguns in his seventh-floor apartment and a .44 caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver Berkowitz had in his car. In addition, they found several notes in his car and his apartment, one of which police said warned that Son of Sam would kill again.

Police then began a laborious series of ballistics tests, checking the gun they seized from Berkowitz against slugs recovered from victims in each of the eight shootings connected to the .44-caliber killer.

By 10:30 a.m., police reported their tests showed that the gun had fired the bullets in two of the eight cases, including the most recent shooting in which the killer claimed his sixth life.

Just before 8:30 a.m. today, Berkowitz, a postal worker since March who served three years in the Army, was formally booked at the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn and whisked away to a nearby Criminal Court for arraignment later in the day.

Wearing worn blue jeans, a light blue-and-white striped shirt and light brown suede shoes, Berkowitz smiled at reporters as a cordon of police moved him from the precinct house.

A woman who lived next to Berkowitz several years ago in The Bronx said today that the man had been adopted and had always been quiet.

"He wasn't they type for girl friends," the woman said.

The .44-caliber revolver, a brown bag containing two dozen bullets and a poem were carried to the car by Berkowitz when he was arrested Wednesday night, police said. The poem described the death of a young woman -- "And huge drops of lead poured down upon her head until she was dead ..."

A newspaper, a television station and columnist Jimmy Breslin said today that police had told them that Berkowitz, a night superintendent at a post office in the Bronx, said he planned to strike next in Suffolk County, on the far end of Long Island. They said he allegedly planned to use a sub-machine gun in a discoteque or night club.

Ballistics tests early today confirmed the revolver was the same one which fired the bullets that killed Miss Moskowitz, 20, police said.