Dad Throws Son and Self Off Building Rooftop Over Custody Issue
A man and his 3-year-old son are dead after the 35-year-old father learned his wife would be gaining custody of the boy. Dmitriy Kanarikov threw his son from the roof of a 52-floor building in New York City before leaping to his own death.
Kanarikov was due to drop his son Kirill off with his estranged wife after a routine custody visit. However, he took the boy to a building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and threw him to his death before taking his own life. The father died instantly, but Kirill managed to survive the initial fall and was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in cardiac arrest, but he succumbed to his injuries moments later.
"They were pumping his chest and working on him, and nothing," Luis Ortiz, a bystander at the hospital, told The New York Post. "It was just heartbreaking … They tried to do the best they could."
The mother, Svetlana Bukharina, is reportedly "a mess," according to a law enforcement official. She reportedly told cops that Kanarikov previously "threatened to kill himself and then kill our child."
Bukharina and Kanarikov were at such odds over custody of Kirill that they had to meet at a public location in order to exchange custody of the boy. Bukharina reportedly accused Kanarikov of being violent and had an order of protection against her ex-husband.
"This is a private matter for my family and my friends," Bukharina told the Daily News when reporters reached her on her cellphone.
Police are still investigating to determine exactly what transpired on Sunday afternoon. What is clear is that both parents deeply loved and adored Kirill.
"I want to be the best dad and husband," Kanarikov wrote in a September Facebook post. "Nothing is more important to me right now."
"I have the best husband and son in the world," Bukharina wrote in March.
Now the family has been utterly devastated.
