Man charged with hate crime after assisted living facility attack

<p><span style="color:black"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt">A man has been arrested and charged with a hate crime after attacking a resident at an assisted living facility in the Bronx, police say.</span></span></span></p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 4, 2017, 2:48 AM

Updated 2,333 days ago

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A man has been arrested and charged with a hate crime after attacking a resident at an assisted living facility in the Bronx, police say.
Alen Califano, 41, was charged after police say he snuck into The New Jewish Home in Kingsbridge Heights Saturday evening and yelled anti
Semitic remarks before attacking one resident.
Califano walked into the building, asked to use the restroom, and was allowed in by a new security guard, according to police.
But once inside, he tried robbing residents inside of their apartments.
Califano attacked at least one man who suffered a blow to the face from a fire extinguisher, according to police.
One tenant claims she saw the suspect weeks ago, and says he looked around at the facility, but eventually left. She says that she thinks the man was planning his attack.
News 12 obtained an internal letter sent to residents, which in part says, "We are providing support and counseling to all of the residents in the building, and have assured them that this was an isolated incident related to poor judgement of the security guard, who was immediately removed from duty."
Califano has been charged with robbery, assault and burglary. He has at least 25 prior arrests.
The security guard who let Califano into the building was terminated.
The incident is being considered a hate crime by the NYPD. 


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