‘I couldn’t sleep by myself’: Husband of Bronx home health aide killed in East Harlem double shooting speaks out
Elsa Espina-Espinal, 55, was just weeks away from retirement when her life was cut short Thursday, Nov. 5.
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The husband of a Bronx home health aide who was shot and killed alongside her patient inside an East Harlem apartment is speaking exclusively to News 12 about the devastating loss of his wife.
Elsa Espina-Espinal, 55, was just weeks away from retirement when her life was cut short Thursday, Nov. 5.
Her husband told News 12 the couple had recently returned from Colombia. Despite being exhausted from the trip, Espina-Espinal was still thinking about the patient she had cared for over the years.
He said she had considered asking her brother to take over her responsibilities that day but ultimately decided to go alone.
On Thursday morning, Espina-Espinal went to care for her patient, 66-year-old Wilgen Elias Severino-Tatis, and planned to get groceries for him. She never made it to her second job that day, and she never returned home.
Police say officers responded to a 911 call at the NYCHA Gaylord White Houses on East 104th Street and Second Avenue shortly after 8:30 p.m.
Inside the apartment, officers found both Espina-Espinal and Severino-Tatis with gunshot wounds to the head. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Sources close to the investigation tell News 12 that Severino-Tatis was found tied up.
Espina-Espinal’s husband believes whoever was responsible may have been looking for something inside the apartment. However, police have not confirmed a motive.
For her family, the tragedy comes just weeks before Espina-Espinal was expected to retire and begin a new chapter of her life in the Dominican Republic.
Her husband is now struggling to adjust to life without the woman he shared decades of marriage with.
“I couldn’t sleep by myself,” he told News 12. “I had my godson, I mean my grandson sleep with me.”
Espina-Espinal, a mother of four from the Bronx, spent years caring for others. Now, her family is left grieving and searching for answers.
No arrests have been announced, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
