A Manhattan man dialed 911 yesterday afternoon and confessed to stabbing his girlfriend to death, police said.
When authorities arrived at the woman’s East 46th Street walk-up, near the United Nations, they found her face-up in bed, dead.
The suspect, Frank Salinas, 44, was leaving the building, specked with blood, as cops arrived, said Robert Grant, a doorman at a building next door.
“He was walking like he didn’t care, like nothing happened,” Grant said. “He was quiet.”
Salinas was rushed to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center after passing out while in a 17th Precinct holding cell, possibly in response to a diabetic condition.
Detectives late yesterday had not yet established a motive in the slaying and were checking records to see if there had been a history of violence between Salinas and his 45-year-old girlfriend.
It was the first murder in the 17th precinct, which covers the area around the United Nations, in more than two years.
Neighbors said Salinas, who is out of work, was given to emotional outbursts and had threatened others in the building.
“He was just a very disturbed guy,” said one man who lives in the building and asked that his name not be printed.
“He threatened to kill me once. She knew all this and continued to be with him by choice.”
David Choi, who runs a dry-cleaning business next door, said the victim, whose name was not released because her family had not yet been notified, had divorced many years ago and worked as a saleswoman at a clothes store.
“She was a very nice person, very friendly and educated,” Choi said. “I’m very sad today. She would always come in and ask about my family.”