Woman, 95, Allegedly Bludgeons Her 89-Year-Old Roommate of Two Days With Wheelchair Foot Pedal
The victim was seen sound asleep an hour before she was attacked.

An elderly woman was washing her blood-soaked hands when her senior living roommate of just two days was found lying on the floor of their shared room â severely thrashed with a metal chair foot pedal.
Galina Smirnova, 95, was cuffed on the night of September 14 after allegedly slaying 89-year-old Nina Kravtsov, according to the criminal complaint obtained and reviewed by The New York Sun.
Both had been checked on by staffers of the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center on West 29th Street at Coney Island minutes before 9 p.m.
In fact, Kravtsov was witnessed âasleep in her bed and nothing in the room was in disarray,â the papers say.
But an hour later, staffers returned to their room for a check-in, only to find a horror show.
Ms. Smirnova, who is believed to be stricken with dementia, was âwashingâ her blood-splattered hands in the bathroom sink while the felled Kravtsov was discovered âcovered in blood,â having been bludgeoned and with âgash marks on her face and head.â
While she was trying to cleanse her hands, the nursing staff noticed that the senior suspectâs gown was soaked red and that she had blood beading down both of her legs.
They also noticed that a wheelchair in the room had both foot pedals ripped from it â one of them resting on the floor was âcovered in blood,â according to the complaint. The other foot pedal was found tossed out of the third-floor roomâs window.
Cops rushed Kravtsov to Brooklynâs NYU Langone Hospital, where, according to the complaint, she would succumb to the blunt force trauma and skull fractures early the next morning.
âOur family is in grief,â a relative informed the Sun.
Lawyer Randy Zelin, who was retained by Kravtsovâs family, told the Sun that the two residents of Seagate were paired to room together because both âspoke Russian.â
Mr. Zelin called it an outrage that the senior facility where Kravtsov had lived for âfive or six yearsâ would leave her alone with a woman suffering from dementia.
âNo one in their right mind would leave a freshly brought over dementia patient alone with another patient,â he said, noting that it was Kravtsovâs room that her alleged killer, Ms. Smirnova, had moved into. âAnd for these two women, one of whom being a dementia patient, who just got there, leaving them leaving the two of them alone is inconceivable.â
Resident-to-resident aggression â a nursing home term â often involves residents with dementia, which can cause those afflicted to become violent.
Mr. Zelin confirmed that Kravstov had survived a stroke and had also survived Hitler: She was a Holocaust survivor from Ukraine.
âShe simply deserved to be cared for and protectedâ while staying put in New York while her only child relocated to Florida, he said.
On Tuesday, after reviewing concerns about the accused killerâs cognitive state, prosecutors formally brought second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges against Ms. Smirnova.
At her arraignment on Wednesday, where Ms. Smirnova pleaded not guilty, the elderly woman appeared wearing a sweater over a blue nightgown; her hair in long white braids.
She was remanded and taken to Bellevue Hospital instead of Rikers Island due to her frail health.
Ms. Smirnovaâs due back in court on September 19.
Meanwhile, the Kravstov familyâs attorney blames the Brooklyn senior home for having a hand in the untimely death of the âlovely and wonderfulâ woman.
âNina should have been in the right place, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time,â Mr. Zelin stressed. âShe was left completely unprotected, completely exposed, left completely vulnerable, and left to die like an animal.â

