The heartbroken mother whose husband tossed their 3-year-old son to his death from an Upper West Side high-rise said Monday that she had been “nervous” about the boy’s visits with his dad — and that he killed the child just to spite her.
“At first, I opposed the visits and only wanted them to be supervised,’’ said Svetlana Kanarikov, 32, whose husband, Dmitriy, 35, of Brooklyn threw their son, Kirill, off the South Park Tower before leaping to his own death on Sunday.
“But after a Dec. 5 court appearance in Brooklyn, we agreed to follow the New Jersey temporary [custody] order and do alternate visits with a handover at the police precinct. I also volunteered that the father would speak to Kirill on Skype every day.
“I was nervous about the visits, but the father never did anything violent against the child” on two previous unsupervised get-togethers Dec. 8 and Dec. 15, she said in a statement released by lawyer, Alla Roytberg.
“Both times, Kirill was happy after seeing his dad. Skype calls were also going well.”
Then, on Wednesday, “the judge granted my motion and ordered temporary custody and child support,’’ the mom said.
“The father said he wanted custody and would make a motion [for it].
“When we first separated, Dmitriy told me that he would leave me alone only if I left him everything we had together,’’ she recalled. “Money and assets were most important to him.
“Otherwise, he said, he would take the child away and I will ‘shoot myself from grief.’ ”
A law-enforcement source said that at one point, Dmitriy said he would also hurt their son, warning her, “If I can’t have him, then you can’t.’’
“If you don’t sign it, I’m going to kill the kid,” the dad said, according to another source.
“And then he did what he did,” the source said.
Svetlana said the murder-suicide “was his sick way to take Kirill away from me.
“He planned it before the visit, and probably after the judge ordered him to pay child support on December 18,’’ she said.
“He told his parents that he would take the child to Grand Central, and instead went to a building he knew from visiting his friend there before, went to the roof and killed my son.
“Kirill was a very sweet, wonderful child, who was loved very much. he will forever live on in my heart.’’
She acknowledged she agreed to withdraw a restraining order against Dmitriy in October after the pair signed a temporary agreement giving her custody of the boy.
Brooklyn Civil Court Judge Jeffrey Sunshine, who oversaw the pair’s Dec. 18 proceeding, was “visibly upset and shaken” when he learned of the tragedy, sources said.
The couple had been married four years and separated in August.
Svetlana said that her husband had turned violent toward her two years ago and that she took action after a domestic incident.
“Since then, our relationship was dominated by his need to control me until finally I had to flee,” she said,
On her Facebook page, Svetlana wrote, “This is a terrible tragedy for my as well as for his family.
“Two mothers lost their sons, except only one had a clear choice in this matter. My son was a very sweet boy who was very much loved. He had a great life, unfortunately it was cut short.”
Sources said investigators are getting warrants for the father’s phone and the Lexus he drove that day in order to retrace his steps with the child.
In Brooklyn, where Dmitriy Kanarikov and his wife once enjoyed an idyllic life, his father struggled to understand the unthinkable tragedy.
Kanarikov’s father, Alex, said a friend of his son lived at the building where he had committed the murder-suicide.
“He went to the apartment building of his friend many times,” the dad said.
“He always told me what a great view it was from the roof of the building. He must have gone up there and picked up his son to show him the view, and then something must have happened up there.”
“He was a very nice boy,” the grandfather said. “He was exactly like his father because they spent so much time together.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan, Daniel Prendergast and C.J. Sullivan