Kelly: Man Who Threw Son Off UWS Roof Had History Of 'Domestic Turmoil' With Wife
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Police said a Brooklyn man had been alone with his son for the first time since the breakup with his wife when he threw the toddler off the roof of a building before jumping to his death.
Dmitriy Kanarikov picked up his 3-year-old son Kirill at 10 a.m. Sunday at a Manhattan police precinct to spend time with him for the first time "outside of some sort of institutional setting,'' Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday.
Kelly: Man Who Threw Son Off UWS Roof Had History Of 'Domestic Turmoil' With Wife
Kanarikov and his wife, Svetlana Bukharina, were going through a divorce, police said. The police precinct was a neutral site negotiated in advance by the parents, Kelly said.
Kelly said the couple had a history of "domestic turmoil," but not abuse. He said Bukharina had taken out an order of protection against her husband after threats had been made.
"The nature of the threat was that unless she signed over the house and some other property to him, that he was going to take the child," Kelly said.
Bukharina had custody of their son and Kanarikov, who had visitation rights, was supposed to hand him over to Bukharina at the police precinct Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
Instead, police said he threw his toddler off the roof of a 52-story building, and then jumped.
Kanarikov was pronounced dead at the scene. His son was found clinging to life, but was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said. A witness said the boy was wearing Christmas pajamas.
"Measures were taken to try to save the boy immediately," said hospital spokesman Donald Maxton. "However, he died in the emergency room."
Luis Ortiz said he was at the hospital when paramedics rushed the boy there and that they were pumping his chest and working on him.
"You could tell that he was already slipping away," said Ortiz.
Police: Man Who Threw Son, 3, Off UWS Roof Involved In Custody Dispute
The motive behind the tragedy remained murky on Monday. Kelly said there was no note found and that there were no threats in the hours beforehand.
Kanarikov and his wife married in 2009 and lived in Brooklyn, where there son was born a year later. They separated last year and the mother and son moved to New Jersey to stay with family and got the order of protection.
Bukharina's brother answered the door there Monday morning.
"My sister doesn't want to comment at the moment and we want to support her wishes," Igor Bukharin said. "We're here to support her."
Bukharina posted a picture online of her son last week with the words: "My beautiful son. The biggest love of my life."
The last time Kanarikov posted on Facebook was in September when he wrote: "I want to be the best dad and husband. Nothing is more important to me right now."
Police said Kanarikov knew someone who used to live in the building where the incident took place, but said that is the only apparent connection he had to the building.
There is a doorman there at all times, so it's unclear how he got inside and up to the roof.
Investigators recovered a security video showing the father and son entering without being stopped by the doorman and located Kanarikov's Lexus parked outside.
A spokesperson for the building said the company had no comment.
It's the second time this year that a parent and child have been involved in a fatal plunge from a New York apartment building.
In March, a woman clutching her baby son in her arms plunged eight stories out of a Harlem apartment window to her death, but the 10-month-old survived. Authorities found a suicide note in her home.
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