Dad Tosses 3-Year-Old Son, Self Off Manhattan High-Rise Roof

A 35-year-old Brooklyn man who had recently split with his wife tossed his 3-year-old son off a 52-floor apartment building in Manhattan before plunging to his death Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Sunday's visit with the boy was the first time Dmitriy Kanarikov had been allowed to take his son, Kirill, alone since the breakup with his wife in August. 

Authorities responded to South Park Tower on West 60th Street around noon and found Kanarikov dead at the scene. The boy was found alive but later died at the hospital, police said.

Kelly said the family had lived in Brooklyn until their recent split, and the wife then moved to New Jersey and got an order of protection against Kanarikov.

"There was a history of domestic turmoil," he said.

All of the father's previous visits with his son had been supervised, Kelly said. On Sunday, the ex-couple met at a Manhattan police precinct so the dad could pick up the boy; the location was chosen because it was about equal distance between their homes.

The plan was for him to bring the boy back to the mother at the precinct later that day. Instead, he went to the building on West 60th Street and went up to the roof, Kelly said.

"All indications are he threw him off and he jumped himself," Kelly said.

Kelly said Kanarikov's only connection to the building was an acquaintance who lived there. The father and son were not stopped when they walked in, police said. 

"The mother, obviously, is very distraught," Kelly said.

Building residents said they were shocked and saddened.

"How heartbreaking, how sad it is that there was no one there to stop them, to say, 'Wait, tomorrow is another day,'" said Ellia Adiel.

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.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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