CBS2 Exclusive: Resident Says Homeless Shelter Murder Suspect Had Been Unstable For Some Time
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Shocking details were revealed Friday about the near-decapitation of a former teacher in an East Harlem homeless shelter.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported exclusively, a former homeless services commissioner was offering Mayor Bill de Blasio suggestions for improving safety as investigators tried to figure out what happened.
NYPD officers were stationed outside the Boulevard Homeless Shelter in East Harlem late Friday. Police said just before midnight Wednesday, former teacher Deven Black, 62, was stabbed in the neck inside the Boulevard Homeless Shelter at 2027 Lexington Ave.
Police have identified the suspect in the grisly crime as Black's roommate – Anthony White, 22. The search for White continued Friday.
"I knew both of them," said shelter resident Kenneth Ricks.
Ricks lived two doors down the hall from Black and White. The things he said he saw and heard raised serious alarm bells about security at the shelter and about White himself, Kramer reported.
"Anthony had very bad mental issues. I really believe he shouldn't have been here," Ricks said. "In the cafeteria, he used to come down a bit angry and he would scream out, outburst, that he was going to kill someone – 'I'm going to wind up killing somebody.' No one takes him seriously. He had been bouncing off the walls for a couple of weeks now."
Ricks also wondered why officials assigned the 62-year-old former teacher to live with White, since White reportedly did not get along with older people.
"He had a real attitude against older people," Ricks said. "He said he came from an abusive background."
Meanwhile, there was tight security at the shelter on Friday. Metal detectors were in operation, and residents were also being wanded by hand – amid questions about how a weapon sharp enough nearly to decapitate someone got inside.
"It decapitated him. That's how sharp it was. And do you know how much anger it takes to force to do that?" Ricks said.
In another development, Black's son, Jonas Black, offered a heart-rending Facebook post. Jonas Black said his father fell through the cracks of a severely broken system."
"It is hard not to hate the man who took my father away from me, but ultimately I see my father's killer as another victim," Jonas Black wrote. "Had there been adequate mental health infrastructure in place, this tragedy would not have happened."
The Boulevard is not the only shelter with security issues. Ronnie Leys was transferred there because he had a run-in with a resident at a Brooklyn shelter.
"I had got sliced in the face," Leys said. "He cut one of the guys' face on a Wednesday. They let him out of jail on Thursday. Friday, he cut my face."
Robert Mascali, a former deputy commissioner in the Department of Homeless Services, said the NYPD should do a security assessment at every shelter and not leave it to the civilians who do it now.
"Look and see how many cameras – surveillance cameras they should have, where they should be positioned, how many guards there were, where they should be stationed, and also, you know, the front door – double check those metal detectors," Mascali said.
CBS2's Kramer tried to bring Mascali's idea to police Commissioner Bill Bratton on Friday, before Bratton spoke at a John Jay College symposium. But an assistant said Bratton was unavailable and his schedule was packed.
