Special Haven Is Shaken by Violence and a Death - NYTimes.com

By KAREEM FAHIM

For about 25 years, the shelter, operated by the group Barrier Free Living, has claimed a special place in the sometimes perilous world of the city’s homeless: it is the only one designated to serve the disabled.

Some have been injured in car accidents or born with spina bifida, others hobbled by shootings or illnesses. The shelter provides them with home attendants and doctors, and handrails to help them walk. For a group of people who have difficulty moving freely, the shelter and the sidewalks surrounding it can be all they see of the world.

Located on a stretch of Second Street still marked by poverty, it is hardly luxurious. Residents live four to a room, their beds separated by hospital screens. Some cope with mental illness or addiction in addition to homelessness and their physical disabilities. And, like in other shelters, those pressures can lead to conflict.

Last Saturday, a simmering dispute between two men turned violent after an argument, according to the police and residents. When it was over, one of them, Ronal Garcia, 24, was dead after being stabbed repeatedly with a folding knife. The police arrested the other man, Felipe Rivera-Cruz, 51, and charged him with second-degree murder. Both of the men were in wheelchairs and had told other residents that they had been shot.

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