Eyewitness News
NEW YORK (WABC) --
Police are looking into the relationship between a 35-year old Brooklyn
man and his wife, as they try to figure out why he would throw his
3-year old son off of a high-rise building.
The bodies of Dmitriy and Kirill Kanarikov were found near
60th Street and Amsterdam Avenue just after noon Sunday following the
52-story fall from the roof of the Upper West Side apartment building. They plunged to their deaths in what is believed to have been the culmination of a custody dispute.
Police believe Dmitriy, an immigrant from the Ukraine who worked as a systems analyst, threw his son off the building before jumping himself in what is being investigated as a murder suicide. No suicide note was found.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his son was pronounced dead at the hospital. A witness said the boy was wearing Christmas pajamas, described as green and white with red mistletoe.
The boy's mother had custody of the child and the father, who had visitation rights, was supposed to hand the boy over to the mother at a police precinct Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Dmitriy left with his son and was only supposed to keep him three hours.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that it was the first time Dmitriy had been allowed to take his son alone since the breakup with his wife Svetlana.
"There was a history of domestic turmoil," Kelly told reporters. The couple was married in 2009 and lived in Brooklyn, but separated this past August, triggering the custody fight. Svetlana moved to New Jersey and obtained an order of protection against her husband, Kelly said.
Investigators have no evidence the father ever threatened to harm his son. However, at one point, he had told his wife that "unless she signed over the house to him and some undisclosed property, he was going to take the child," Kelly said.
Authorities said the father did not live in the building listed as South Park Tower, which is a short distance away from Columbus Circle and Lincoln Center.
In September, Dmitriy Kanarikov posted on Facebook, "I want to be the best dad and husband, nothing is more important to me right now."
After the breakup, Svetlana moved to her parents home in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where friends and family paid their respects Monday.
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