Security Cameras To Be Installed At Bronx Housing Project Month After Elderly Woman's Beating Death

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Cameras will be installed at the Pelham Parkway Houses a month after an 88-year-old woman was found bludgeoned to death in an apparent push-in robbery.

City Councilman James Vacca has arranged $4 million in funds to install cameras and fix locks at the public housing project in an attempt to curb an alarming increase of gang and drug-related crime in the eastern section of the Bronx.

"This is not going to be a hiding place anymore," Vacca said. "If they do something illegal they're going to be caught because these cameras will allow us to catch them."

1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck reports

The cameras are expected to be installed over the next year.

Residents have been on edge and living in fear since the beating death of Evelyn Shapiro.

"The residents are frightened, the residents will not accept this level of danger, the residents want those who committed this crime caught," Vacca said.  "I think people in public housing have a right to live in safety. Their first civil liberty is the right to come into their homes and have people visit them without having fear of being mugged, attacked or murdered."

WCBS 880's Paul Murnane reports

Shapiro was found dead in her ransacked apartment on June 16. The suspected motive is believed to be robbery, police said.

The case remains unsolved.

Just a third of city projects have such security cameras in place.

Nearly 7,000 cameras have been installed over the past 15 years, the Housing Authority's Ate Riazi said.

In:
• Pelham Parkway Houses