Nina Kravtsov, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, was found bleeding in her room at a Coney Island nursing home in New York earlier this week and later succumbed to her injuries. Police suspect her new roommate, 95-year-old Galina Smirnova, attacked her with a heavy metal pedal removed from a wheelchair, causing fatal blunt force trauma.
The two had shared a room for only two days. Staff reported hearing noises around 10 p.m., an hour after Kravtsov fell asleep. When they entered, they found her unconscious with severe facial injuries, a bloodied pedal on the floor and another part outside the window, as if thrown.
Smirnova was in the bathroom, wearing a blood-stained robe, washing her hands amid pools of blood. An investigator described the scene, saying, “There was blood on the defendant’s gown and on her legs. The defendant was washing her hands in the bathroom sink.
Kravtsov, a Ukraine-born mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who survived the Holocaust, had lived at the nursing home since 2020, known for her quiet and orderly nature.
Smirnova was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and weapons possession, with the pedal cited as the weapon. She faces a psychiatric evaluation due to suspected dementia and is held without bail as police review security footage and staff testimonies. No clear motive has been established.
Kravtsov’s attorney, representing her family, said, ”The way she died is like in a Stephen King horror movie. This doesn't happen in real life.” Blaming the nursing home’s negligence for pairing a Holocaust survivor with a dementia patient without proper vetting or supervision.
“Not only did they fail to protect her, they created this intolerable situation.” Kravtsov’s daughter, Lucy Flom, flew from Florida to New York upon hearing of her mother’s critical condition, initially thinking she had fallen. “They told me it was something else,” she recounted. Flom tried to tell her unconscious mother she loved her over the phone, but learned of her death upon arriving in New York.
The family plans to pursue criminal charges against Smirnova and a civil lawsuit against the nursing home for negligent placement and lack of oversight, vowing, “We’ll fight until we know how this woman, after all she endured, was murdered in a place meant to protect her.”