Man allegedly murdered roommate's fish because she wanted to move out

A Brooklyn man furious that his longtime roommate wanted to move out turned his rage on her pet fish, flushing one down the toilet and letting the other suffocate. José Santiago murdered his roommate’s scaly pals, Bonnie and Clyde, when he saw her packing her bags in their Flatbush apartment on Wednesday, she said.

“They were my babies! I can’t have children, so my pets are like my kids,” Brenda Alvarez said. “They were beautiful fish and cost about $25 each. I did everything for him, and the only thing I ever asked him to do was the laundry,” she said. “So, why did he do this to me?”



Alvarez, 45, said she wanted to move out of the apartment because of growing tension between the longtime friends. “I was gonna leave . . . so, I started packing, but he kept antagonizing me,” Alvarez recalled. “Then he went crazy!” Santiago allegedly roughed up Alvarez before turning on the fish. He killed them in front of her, she said.

He flushed one down the toilet, then put another in a bag and tied it, she said. “When I saw him kill my fish I went berserk!” Alvarez said. Santiago, 47, was arrested and charged with animal cruelty and assault. He was released without bail at his arraignment on Thursday. Alvarez is now haunted by the empty aquarium.