95-year-old accused of murdering Holocaust survivor in NYC nursing home
Galina Smirnova allegedly beat her roommate Nina Kravtsov to death with a wheelchair foot pedal
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NEW YORK — An elderly dementia patient was accused on Wednesday of beating a Holocaust survivor to death in a New York City nursing home.
Galina Smirnova, 95, was charged with murdering Nina Kravtsov, 89, on Sunday in the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
Smirnova was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. She pleaded not guilty, is being held in custody and will next appear in court on Friday, court records showed.
Prosecutors said in court that a nursing home staffer found the victim lying on her bed with “severe head injuries” and “blood all over the room,” The New York Post reported.
Smirnova was found in the room’s private bathroom, washing her hands, with blood on her gown and legs. The foot pedals from a wheelchair in the room had been removed, and one of the pedals was found covered in blood, the report said.
Kravtsov’s daughter told The Post that Kravtsov lost her family in the Holocaust when she was five years old.
Smirnova had only arrived in the nursing home on Friday and was placed in a room with Kravtsov, the report said. Kravtsov had been in the home since 2020.
The nursing home told CBS News that it was conducting an investigation and declined to comment further.
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