A Brooklyn nursing home turned into the scene of a chilling crime when authorities say a 95-year-old dementia patient fatally attacked her 89-year-old roommate, leaving staff and family members stunned.
Dementia patient kills Holocaust survivor
Galina Smirnova, 95, was arraigned Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon following the violent death of Nina Kravtsov, 89.
Kravtsov’s relatives described her as a Holocaust survivor who had endured Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine before ultimately settling in the United States.
Both women lived at the Seagate Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Coney Island, sharing room 333.
According to court documents, staff last saw Kravtsov alive and sleeping in her bed Sunday evening with no sign of disturbance.
Roughly an hour later, a witness entered the same room and found a gruesome scene.
Kravtsov was discovered “non-responsive, covered in blood, and with gash marks about her face and head,” the complaint stated.
Facility security footage confirmed no one else had entered or left the room between 8:55 p.m. and 9:55 p.m., aside from medical personnel checking on Smirnova.
When nurses rushed in, they found Smirnova in the bathroom rinsing blood from her hands.
Dementia patient allegedly killed roommate with wheelchair pedal
Meanwhile, Kravtsov was transported to the hospital, but she died early Monday from blunt force trauma, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Investigators reported that a wheelchair in the room had both foot pedals removed, with one discovered on the floor soaked in blood. Kravtsov had sustained severe facial and head fractures.
Kravtsov’s family noted she had suffered a stroke five years ago and had been placed in Seagate on her physician’s recommendation to receive additional care.
Attorney Randy Zelin, representing her relatives, criticized the nursing home’s decision to house her with Smirnova, who he said had been admitted only two days earlier as a dementia patient.
“You have this woman who has survived the Holocaust and has beaten the odds. She is supposed to be cared for and protected and looked after … and instead she ends up with her head and face bashed into the point that she was unrecognizable,” Zelin said.
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He added that “the way she died was like in a Stephen King horror movie.”
Smirnova pleaded not guilty during her Brooklyn court appearance and was ordered held without bail. She had been arrested the previous day following the shocking discovery.
While New York grappled with that tragedy, another act of violence unfolded hundreds of miles away in Miami Beach.
Elderly man stabs manager at senior housing complex
Disturbing surveillance video captured 83-year-old John Gula stabbing a woman inside a senior housing complex on August 4.
The footage shows Gula lunging at Amelia Sola-Ortiz, a housing authority asset manager, as she visited his unit in Rebecca Towers to discuss failed inspections and the unsanitary condition of his apartment.
The video, obtained by NBC6, depicts Gula speaking with Sola-Ortiz and his girlfriend outside the unit before suddenly pulling what appeared to be a folding knife from his pocket.
He then thrust the blade at Sola-Ortiz repeatedly, striking her in the chest and head as she desperately tried to flee.
Despite her injuries, Sola-Ortiz managed to wrestle the knife from his grip and fling it down the hallway. Cameras captured blood pouring from her upper body as she staggered to safety.
Even after losing the knife, Gula pursued her, grasping onto the bleeding victim and attempting to drag her back. His girlfriend was seen trying to restrain him as Sola-Ortiz get away.
At one point, Gula reached into his pocket and pulled out a second weapon, but his girlfriend once again held him back.
Ultimately, Sola-Ortiz found refuge inside a neighbor’s apartment, where the resident called police.
Responding officers arrived to find Sola-Ortiz unconscious and severely wounded.
She was taken to a local trauma center and underwent emergency surgery.
Police soon apprehended Gula in his girlfriend’s apartment on the seventh floor of the complex.
Detectives say he was still wearing a blood stained shirt. While searching the premises, they found Sola-Ortiz’s broken glasses, blood in the bathroom, and Gula’s soaked pants submerged in a bucket of water tinged red.
He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he remains held without bond on an attempted second-degree murder charge
