A woman was found unconscious with trauma to the head Sunday morning, police said.
By Sunday evening, 36-year-old Jonathan Robles was charged with her murder and criminal possession of a weapon, according to officials.
Police told NY1 that the 63-year-old woman was homeless.
The woman police say was killed inside a Central Park gazebo was someone a man, who calls himself Moji, had known for several years.
“For two years, she fed me. A homeless woman took care of me for two years,” Moji said.
“She was not homeless. This was her home. She had a home already, and it became my home, and it became other people’s home,” he continued.
“Used to see her here all the time. Never bothered anybody. So, it’s kind of incomprehensible to us,” Birder Dan Stevens said.
Stevens said she painted and displayed her work in The Ramble.
“A fixture in the park. For a long time, she used to fill the feeders,” he said.
The woman’s death comes as a major crime in Central Park is up nearly 30% this year, according to officials. There have been 83 major felonies so far this year compared with 64 at this point last year.
“I feel fine,” park-goer Bridget Kegelman said. “New York as a whole has only ever really been on a trajectory of getting safer and safer.”
For others, feeling safe means staying aware.
“As long as you’re aware of your environment, as for everywhere you go, it’s not just the park,” park-goer Tamar Rubinestein said.
For those who knew the woman killed in The Ramble, that awareness now comes with an absence.
The place she made a home is now the place they’re mourning her.
Police have not released her identity as they search for next of kin.