The father of a New York nurse who was fatally shot by her boyfriend in an apparent murder-suicide has recounted the desperate final phone conversation during which he pleaded with the gunman to let his daughter live.
Rudy Cantarini, a former police officer, spent 14 agonising minutes on the phone with Juan Cornelio Diaz, 38, as the latter confronted his daughter, Andrea Cantarini, 37, inside their Bronx apartment on Tuesday night.
During the call, Rudy heard what he believed were three gunshots, followed by his daughter’s screams.
Diaz then delivered a chilling message, telling him: “She’s gone, Rudy.”
Father begged daughter’s boyfriend to put down his gun
Andrea had called her father at approximately 8.47pm, warning him that her boyfriend was threatening her with a firearm.
“He’s going to kill me and he’s got a gun to my head,” she reportedly told him.
Rudy said he remained on the phone as the situation unfolded, repeatedly pleading with Diaz to release his daughter.
“We tried and we begged, the both of us, to let her go. And he just wouldn’t listen,” he recalled.
The former police officer said he desperately urged Diaz to reconsider his actions, telling him: “Please do not, do not kill her, Juan. It’s not too late, Juan, just let her go.”
However, his appeals were unsuccessful.
“I was on the phone with her for 14 minutes while he was holding a gun to her head,” Rudy told the New York Daily News.
“I was begging for her life. And he ended up taking her life.”
Police discover couple dead inside Bronx apartment
Officers responding to the incident shortly after 9pm discovered Andrea and Diaz dead inside their apartment.
Andrea, who worked as a nurse at St Barnabas Hospital in New York City, had suffered a gunshot wound to the head in the couple’s bedroom.
Diaz, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent stationed at John F Kennedy International Airport, was found nearby with a similar gunshot wound.
New York City police are investigating the incident as a murder-suicide linked to a domestic dispute.
Authorities have also recovered the firearm believed to have been used in the shootings.
A CBP spokesperson confirmed that the agency is cooperating with the police investigation.
Victim had reportedly planned to end relationship
Andrea’s father said his daughter had wanted to end her relationship with Diaz, but he struggled to accept the decision.
“She wanted to break up with him. He couldn’t handle it. He was a coward,” Rudy said.
He also disclosed that there had been a frightening confrontation earlier on Tuesday, during which Diaz allegedly shut himself in a room with Andrea and pointed a gun at her.
Their six-year-old daughter was reportedly outside the room, screaming and crying.
Andrea eventually took the child to her father’s home in Poughkeepsie before going to work.
According to Rudy, several family members and friends urged her not to return to the apartment.
“Her mother begged her not to go back to the house,” he said.
“Two girls at work, her best friends, begged her not to go back there because what happened in the morning was irrational.”
Rudy admitted that he did not know precisely what had happened during the earlier confrontation.
“I wish I did, because I would have called the police,” he told the New York Post.
“You’re waving a gun at my daughter – that’s way beyond normal.”
He said Andrea later returned to the apartment to collect some clothes, believing the immediate danger had passed.
However, her father alleged that Diaz was waiting to ambush her.
Neighbours recall hearing couple arguing
A downstairs neighbour identified as Kaela said she and her roommate had heard Andrea and Diaz engaged in a loud argument earlier in the week.
The disturbance was sufficiently concerning that the two women discussed whether they should contact the police.
“Me and my roommate were having a conversation about like, at what point do we call the cops?” she told the Daily News.
However, the argument stopped shortly after they discussed calling authorities.
On Tuesday night, the neighbours heard gunshots coming from the apartment.
Kaela said she and her roommate initially thought the noises were trucks backfiring before hearing sounds they later understood to have been the bodies hitting the floor.
“It’s awful and upsetting and horrific,” she said.
“It’s a scary world.”
Friends and neighbours shocked by couple’s deaths
People who knew Andrea and Diaz said they had appeared to be a happy family before the fatal incident.
Karla Evangelista, 29, a former neighbour, said she had developed a friendship with Andrea because they were both young mothers.
She described Andrea as beautiful, physically active and frequently dressed in gym clothes.
“I still don’t understand what led to this,” Evangelista said, explaining that the news had left her so shocked that she could not sleep.
She also recalled the couple’s excitement about moving into a larger home where their daughter would have her own bedroom.
According to Evangelista, Diaz had spoken enthusiastically about the move, telling her boyfriend: “We’re so happy because now she’s going to have her own room.”
She described Diaz as athletic, sociable and friendly, recalling how he regularly went cycling and running and sometimes spent time playing with his daughter in the parking lot.
He would also engage neighbours in lengthy conversations whenever they met.
“I honestly was so shocked that I didn’t sleep, because it was not the people I would have thought that would do that, and that that would happen to her,” she said.
Father remembers daughter as devoted mother
Rudy described Andrea as a loving daughter and mother whose death had left the family devastated.
He said she was the apple of his eye and remembered her as someone who maintained close relationships with friends and family.
“She was a beautiful woman inside and out,” he said.
“She had all kinds of friends. She was a great mother, a great mother. She was a beautiful kid, family-oriented, domesticated.”
He added that he and Andrea’s mother had raised her to become a responsible adult.
Andrea and Diaz shared a six-year-old daughter, while Diaz also had a son from a previous relationship.
Rudy said he was unaware of Diaz having any previous mental health problems.
Reflecting on the devastating phone call, the grieving father said the loss was something he would have to carry for the rest of his life.
“I have to live with this the rest of my life,” he said.
Police investigations into the deaths are continuing.
