Home health aide, patient fatally shot in East Harlem apartment, police say

A shooting in an East Harlem apartment left two people dead Thursday night.

Investigators say they got a call about two people shot dead in a 14th-floor apartment at Second Avenue near East 104th Street at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

When officers arrived, they found Elsa Espina-Espinal, 55, and Wilgen Elias Severino-Tatis, 66, with gunshot wounds to the head. They were both pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say Espina-Espinal worked as a home health aide to Severino-Tatis.

Detectives say no weapon was recovered, and they have yet to determine a motive for the shooting.

Espina-Espinal’s daughter says her mother and Severino-Tatis were like family, and her family is grieving for both of them.

“We don’t want to question God, but not like this. She did not deserve that,” daughter Elly Santana said. “She deserved so much. She worked three jobs. She buried her son 18 years ago, and now we bury her.”

She says she doesn’t understand who would want to kill her mother, who she says was weeks away from retirement.

“The 7th of December. We had a dinner planned on the 5th to go out to celebrate and send her off to her retirement,” Santana said.

Neighbors are shaken. 

“Funny, friendly, respectful. Always had a good heart and he’s going to be missed very much,” building tenant Cindy Rosa said. “What did he do that he deserved a bullet in the head?”

With the person responsible still on the run, neighbors are concerned about safety in their community. 

“We need to watch over each other now,” Rosa said. “If we don’t, God only knows.” 

“It’s a beautiful building. We’re very close with all our tenants. This is devastating,” assistant building manager Shameya Muniz said. “Just make sure we’re keeping everybody comfortable and ensuring them that they’re still safe here.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website or via DM on X, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.