A 95-year-old Brooklyn woman was charged with murder after allegedly beating her 89-year-old roommate to death with a wheelchair footrest in their nursing home.
Galina Smirnova was charged with second-degree murder and possession of a criminal weapon in the murder of Nina Kravtsov, who was a Holocaust survivor and a Ukrainian national.
The criminal complaint states that Kravtsov was discovered with a cut on her face and head and covered in blood, after a welfare check by staff of the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Coney Island.
Only one hour ago, she slept and was not hurt. Smirnova is alleged by the police to have been found washing the blood off her hands and gown in the communal bathroom.
The weapon was a bloody wheelchair footrest which was discovered on the floor.
Kravtsov survived Hitler and a ghetto in Ukraine before embarking on his immigration to the U.S in 1979, but died of blunt force trauma.
Her attorney, Randy Zelin, her family attorney, told about her death as a horror movie in a Stephen King novel.
The case poses convoluted issues regarding dementia and accountability since the case of Smirnova, the new resident introduced in the room only two days ago as both ladies speak Russian, has been found not guilty.
She is in detention without bail because the investigation is ongoing.