31-year-old arrested in death of 88-year-old 'pillar' of Bronx community

BRONX, N.Y. (WABC) -- Police have arrested a woman in the killing of an 88-year-old woman in the Bronx over the summer.

Pia McQueen, 31, a homeless woman, has been charged with second-degree murder, burglary and a criminal possession of a weapon, according to the New York City Police Department. She was arrested Monday.

The NYPD said officers found Evelyn Shapiro dead on the floor of her home on Williamsbridge Avenue just before 10 a.m. June 16. The door was unlocked and her groceries were scattered on the floor. Police said Shapiro appeared to have suffered severe head trauma.

Shapiro was well known in the community.

Bronx borough President Ruben Diaz issued a statement at the time calling her a "pillar of her community." He said whoever killed her was "a savage."

Neighbor Lisa Velez is having trouble understanding what happened. "I got in my apartment, and I was crying. I called my mom. I was very very upset," said Velez.

Neighbors said she was found by her daughter this morning. "She called her mother. She didn't get an answer. She came down and found the door open," said Herma Williams, the resident association president.

As crime scene investigators and homicide detectives combed through Shapiro's fifth-floor apartment in June at the Pelham Parkway houses, neighbors remembered a woman who had lived there for decades, a woman they say was an original resident of the complex that dates back to 1950.

"She was a good person. She was nice," said one tenant.

"Ms. Shapiro was independent for a senior," said Williams. "She had a car. She liked to get up and do her own thing."