Harlem woman allegedly stabbed to death by ex had restraining order
The Harlem woman who was allegedly butchered by her “controlling” ex-boyfriend had recently received a restraining order against him, police sources and neighbors told The Post Thursday.
Fernando Munera, 26, was barred by a court order from contacting or seeing Alayna Hardy, 27, when he broke into her East 115th Street apartment around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday — after unsuccessfully trying to get in through a fire escape hours earlier, police and sources said.
Munera then allegedly went on a vicious rampage once inside — stabbing his former lover multiple times all over her body and neck.
Hardy, a native of Arizona who moved to the Big Apple in 2015, did her best to fight off her attacker, knifing him in the chest and neck before cops responded to the carnage.
“I heard a woman crying loudly,” said a neighbor who lives across the street and knew the couple. “And then after that, nothing.”
Hardy died shortly after at Metropolitan Hospital, police said.
Munera was taken to Harlem Hospital in critical condition and was later charged with murder, burglary and criminal contempt, police said.
“She was amazing,” Hardy’s mother, Anitra Crandall, told The Post by phone Thursday morning as she sobbed and declined further comment.
Court papers detailed Munera’s alleged volatility toward Hardy.
On February 13, he was arrested for allegedly pinning Hardy down in her apartment, taking her phone so she couldn’t call 911, punching her door and destroying various household items, according to court records and police sources.
He was charged with unlawful imprisonment, criminal mischief and harassment in the second degree. A judge placed a temporary order of protection against him that barred him from seeing or contacting Hardy, court records show.
On Thursday morning, Munera was scheduled to appear in court on the matter — just hours after he allegedly butchered his former lover.
Hardy’s cousin Madison Elder said the slain woman, who moved to the Big Apple in 2015, had a true a zest for life.
“She loved New York for all its opportunities, life, culture, art, food, and people,” Elder told The Post. “She was made for New York, she always made friends wherever she went, always had endless energy and excitement to explore and she always took advantage of all the city had to offer her. She was going to school to be a physician’s assistant.”
But Hardy also endured extreme highs and lows during her tumultuous relationship with Munera, neighbors recalled.
Police had been called to Hardy’s apartment five times last July over domestic incidents, police sources said, and a neighbor who hung out with the couple described Munera as “controlling” and “the jealous type,” adding that he had “anger issues.”
Others said the couple were frequently spotted together doing laundry, walking a dog and going for rides on Munera’s motorcycle and were “very much in love.”
Building staff and neighbors said Munera and Hardy were in a constant cycle of breaking up and getting back together again.
“In the past year, they sometimes used to fight and then they were in love and then they used to fight,” George Ayre, the building’s manager, told The Post.
On the day of Hardy’s murder, neighbor Noel Enrique Bermudez said he saw Munera angrily pacing back and forth on First Avenue, cursing to himself and “rolling his hands into a ball.”
“He was talking to himself, saying “I can’t, b-tch, this f–g c–t. I can’t believe this b-tch did that,” Bermudez recalled.
“I saw the anger in his eyes.”
But just an hour and a half later, another local saw the couple cruising down First Avenue on Munera’s motorcycle.
“They were happy. They were both on his bike, kissing and taking photos. He let me have his parking spot on First Avenue,” the local said.
“They were always together like two lovebirds.”
