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Mom Was 'Nervous' About Husband Visiting Son Who He Tossed Off Building

By  Trevor Kapp Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska and Janon Fisher | December 23, 2013 2:46pm | Updated on December 24, 2013 10:53am

 Dmitriy Karanikov, 35, killed his 3-year-old son Kirill after a feud with his wife over ownership of their house.
Father killed son amid property dispute
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ONE POLICE PLAZA — The distraught mom of a 3-year-old boy who was tossed off a Midtown high-rise by his father broke her silence Monday, saying that she was "nervous" about the dad, who had a "volatile temper," getting unsupervised visits with the child.

The mom, Svetlana Karanikov, 32, also said in a statement that her husband, Dmitriy, with whom she was locked in a bitter custody and property dispute, threatened to "take the child away," leaving her to "shoot myself with grief" if she didn't give him all of their assets.

According to the statement, Svetlana had asked a judge not to allow the visits, but the court granted her husband unsupervised access to their son, Kirill, starting on Dec. 8.

"I was nervous about the visits, but the father never did anything violent against the child before," she said in the statement, released by her divorce lawyer. "All the [domestic] incidents were between the two of us."

While the initial visit and a subsequent one on Dec. 15 went well — "both times Kirill was happy after seeing his dad," the statement read — the circumstances changed dramatically this past weekend.`

On Sunday, after picking the boy up at the 17th Precinct stationhouse on the East Side, the agreed-upon meeting point, Dmitriy took his son up to the roof of a building on West 60th Street where a friend lived and threw him off. After that, he jumped as well.

The boy, who was wearing his Christmas pajamas, was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital across the street, but he could not be saved.

Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35, and his wife split up in August after four years of marriage, and were locked in a rancorous battle over custody of Kirill as well as control of their Mill Basin home, the wife said in the statement.

"When we first separated Dmitriy told me that he would leave me alone only if I left him everything we had together," heartbroken mom said. "Money and assets were most important to him. Otherwise, he said that he would take the child away and 'I will shoot myself from grief.'"

She said that last year, her husband had become violent and controlling, causing her to flee the relationship.

"I left my husband in August and sought refuge in my parents' house in New Jersey with our son," Svetlana said. "At first we tried to reconcile, but that fell through. There was a scary verbal dispute and I filed a restraining order in New Jersey."

In October, she softened to her estranged husband and signed a temporary agreement allowing him to visit the child on Sundays for three hours at a time, alternating between New Jersey, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

But she filed for divorce in New York requesting child custody, support and limiting Dmitriy's child access to supervised visits "due to the father's volatile temper," she said.

The turning point, Svetlana said, came on Dec. 18 when a Brooklyn judge granted her temporary custody and child support. Dmitriy vowed to file a motion for custody before their next court date on Jan. 17.

The ex-wife's story is consistent with what police have said.

"There was a history of domestic turmoil...There were threats," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday. "The nature of the threat was that unless she signed over the house and some other property to him, he was going to take the child."

Dmitriy, who was living in the couple's recently renovated new South Brooklyn home, picked the child up at the 17th precinct stationhouse Sunday morning because it was the midpoint between Mill Basin and New Jersey, Kelly said.

"Tragically, he went to the building, 124 West 60th St, took the son to the roof and all indications are he threw him off and then he jumped himself," the commissioner said.

Police have not found a suicide note, but the mom speculated that the tragedy may have been linked to a recent court order.

"He planned it before the visit," the mom said. "Probably after the judge ordered him to pay child support on December 18.

"He told his parents that he would take the child to Grand Central, and instead went to a building he knew from visiting his friend there before, went to the roof and killed my son."

Neighbors in Brooklyn said that the family had only lived there briefly.

"They just moved here a couple of months ago," said Mikhail Chaplik, 77, who lives across the street. "I saw them a couple of times since then. Just going in and out of the house. This is such a big house. I'm surprised there were only three of them living there. They must be rich."

He said no one in the neighborhood could make sense of it.

"I don't understand what happened," Chaplik said. "It's a tragedy."

On Monday night, Svetlana released several photos of herself with the child in happier times as she would like to remember him.

"Kirill was a very sweet, wonderful child, who was loved very much," she said. "He will forever live in my heart."

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that this past Sunday was Dmitriy Karanikov's first unsupervised visit with his son based on information supplied by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.