NEW YORK (AP) – It was bad enough that Ana Charle was killed after leaving her job for the day as director at a homeless shelter for men. But how it happened shocked even seasoned investigators.
They say her killer was an ex-con and former shelter resident who forced her to strip and sexually assaulted her early Monday evening, then gunned her down on the sidewalk as she tried to flee with her clothes still off.
Since then, the slaying in the Bronx – called “as bad a homicide as I’ve seen” by Robert Boyce, the city’s chief of detectives – has fueled a debate over whether shelter workers and neighbors need more protection from a homeless population that includes men with histories of violent crime and mental illness.
State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and other politicians have called for the city Department of Homeless Services to shut down the Bronx Boulevard Men’s Shelter. Dinowitz claimed that city officials ignored earlier pleas for more security at the facility. The city has since added three security guards there.
“They should have listened to us in the first place,” the Bronx Democrat said. “It’s impossible to know if it could have saved her life. But it’s really infuriating.”