Slain dentist - ex-wife is to blame
The wailing mother of slain Queens dentist Daniel Malakov blamed his ex-wife Monday for his execution-style slaying after an angry, emotion-filled funeral service.
"The wife killed my son! She ordered him killed!" Malaka Malakov, 64, howled as her family tried to dry her tears outside a Forest Hills funeral home.
Police sources told the Daily News detectives are looking into whether the Ivy League-trained dentist's ex-wife, Mazoltuv (Marina) Borukhova, or her family hired a hit man - or did the deed themselves.
"We are looking at the wife and mother-in-law and some of the wife's cousins," an NYPD police source said.
Borukhova's family vigorously denies she - or any family member - was involved.
Malakov, 34, took three bullets to the chest at point-blank range Sunday morning while meeting with Borukhova to hand over their 4-year-old daughter, Michelle, for a visit. He had won custody of the little girl a week earlier after a long, bitter divorce battle.
A homemade silencer was found in the leaves near the scene at the Annadale Playground by Public School 175. It was a plastic bleach bottle wrapped in silver duct tape with its narrow end attached to the muzzle of the gun. It probably blew off when it was fired, a police source said. The weapon was not recovered.
After the shooting on the edge of the playground, Borukhova, a medical doctor, ran inside the playground and left Michelle with her sister, then returned to perform CPR on her former husband, but not until after police arrived, the source said.
The gunman was described as a white man in his 50s wearing a black polo hat, dark leather jacket and black pants.
Another police source said cops are investigating whether any of Borukhova's family had ties to the Russian Mafia to call upon for a hit man. Both families were from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic.
"There are no overt ties to the Russian mob," the source said, "just some cousins who could be counted on for trouble in their own right."
Malakov was an Ivy League-trained dentist who attended Columbia University and NYU. Borukhova, 34, is a doctor certified in internal medicine. Both kept practices in Forest Hills.
Malaka Malakov said Borukhova threatened her and her family just one day after she lost her final court appeal to win back her daughter.
"She told me three days ago she will kill my son," Malakov said. "I didn't believe it. Marina said, 'Sunday, your son will be killed.' I said, 'Are you crazy?'"
Malakov also said three days before her son's killing, his ex-wife's sister Sosa Borukhova also threatened her.
"She said, 'I'm going to kill your son Daniel,'" Malakov said. "'Your whole family will be in the cemetery.'"
Sosa Borukhova refused to comment yesterday and remained inside the Forest Hills building where both her sister and mother have apartments.
Malakov's relatives said his mother-in-law, Esther Borukhova, also threatened to kill. She could not be reached for comment. Child custody lawyer David Schnall, who was appointed to represent Michelle during the court battle that began 3-1/2 years ago, said he was saddened by Daniel Malakov's murder.
Schnall said Michelle had been in Borukhova's custody and that Malakov went to court because it was the only way he could "develop a relationship with his daughter."
"He was doing what he felt was best for his child," he said.
Several sources familiar with the custody case said Borukhova would do anything to win custody, including falsely accusing Malakov of sexually molesting his daughter.
Schnall said the child is in an undisclosed location after seeing her father shot down.
At yesterday's funeral, family and friends packed the Schwartz Brothers-Jeffer Memorial Chapel on Queens Blvd.
"It wasn't just a death," said cousin Aaron Borukhov. "It was a murder. And it wasn't just a murder. It was the murder of a father in front of his daughter."
He made a plea to anyone who saw anything or knows anything to contact police.
Malakov's mother said she warned him not to go meet his ex-wife alone on Sunday.
"Why are you going alone to give the baby?" she asked.
He responded, "My wife is good, Mommy."
Video Of the Shooting http://newshunters.org/Archives/Orthodontist_Killed_at_Playground.htmlSee More Video http://NewsHunters.org
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