New York.- Nikki Secondino, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was arrested after confessing that she stabbed her father to death and seriously injured her younger sister and herself to fake a violent robbery yesterday at her home in Brooklyn (NYC).
According to police, Secondino originally blamed the attack on a couple of suspected squatters who entered his home at 5:50 am Thursday, killing his father Carlo Secondino, 61, and his sister Liana, 19. The incident occurred at the family’s home on 17th Avenue near 82nd Street in the Bensonhurst neighborhood.
But last night, after parts of her story didn’t add up, Nikki admitted to the crime, according to sources. She was charged with murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Detectives are still investigating what led to the violent crime.
A 61-year-old neighbor who asked not to be named was the first person in the building to respond to the father’s calls for help. She saw blood splattered all over the hallway and heard her dying screams in the pre-dawn hours.
“I heard like wrestling, fight,” the neighbor told the Daily News. “I heard the father. He pleaded with me, “Please call the police!”… The front of her chest, right there, was saturated in red as if she were wearing a red vest.”
Nikki then banged on the woman’s door in an attempt to get her out. The terrified woman called 911 and waited in her unlocked apartment.
The neighbor said there was a contentious relationship between the father and the eldest daughter, Nikki, who is transgender. “Every time they argued there was banging… Because the walls are just plaster, she heard everything.”
Despite the fact that they apparently did not have a good relationship, the father “supported her 100%” in her sex change operation two years ago, said Yadira Gómez (47), the father’s co-worker. And so says Nikki in a long video posted on Youtube in 2020.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, while both daughters were hospitalized: Liana in critical condition due to stab wounds. Nikki also suffered minor cuts.
A window inside the house was broken from the inside, contradicting the story of a burglary, according to the police source at the scene. And there were no signs of forced entry inside the apartment located above a plumbing shop on 17th Ave. near 82nd St.
Detectives did not find any surveillance video outside the home to support the home invasion account and Nikki had cuts on her hand that were consistent with a knife that slipped during the stabbing, sources said.
There was not a large amount of cash or drugs at the crime scene and the victims have no criminal records. Nikki said nothing to reporters as she was driven from the 62nd precinct in Bensonhurst last night. Arraignment for her in Brooklyn Criminal Court is pending.
