A 22-year-old aspiring model faces charges including murder and attempted murder for allegedly killing her father and gravely wounding her sister at their Brooklyn home a day ago, a bloodbath she first blamed on masked home invaders, authorities say.
Nikki Secondino also is accused of weapons possession after the shocking turn of events. She was led from a Brooklyn police stationhouse late Thursday and appeared to have cuts on her hands. It wasn't immediately clear if those were self-inflicted. It also wasn't known if she had an attorney.
Investigators had spent a chunk of the day Thursday searching for two suspects wearing all black and ski masks, the descriptions Nikki Secondino provided them of the attackers who swooped into her family's Bensonhurst home on 17th Avenue that morning. Then, they say, the web of lies began to unravel.
Nikki Secondino allegedly made statements to detectives indicating she had fabricated the story about the home invasion after stabbing her 61-year-old father, Carlo Secondino, to death, and leaving her 19-year-old sister, Liana, with serious wounds, according to a high-ranking NYPD source.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
The younger sister was still said to be fighting for her life in the hospital as of the NYPD's last update.
There was no immediate word on a possible motive. Neighbors said officers had visited the apartment in the past, responding to calls about fights between family members.
Local
One neighbor who did not wish to be identified said Thursday that Nikki Secondino had come banging on her door amid the chaos Thursday, begging her to open it. At the same time, that neighbor said she could hear the father yelling for someone to call 911. She also said she heard screams and the sound of bodies slamming against the wall.
The neighbor said she opened the door and was so terrified by what she saw that she slammed it shut.
"I saw the blood in the hallway and that's when I got shaken up. I saw the blood in the hallway and closed it," the woman said.
The investigation is ongoing.
