Westchester Man Charged In Killing Of Niece Over Inheritance Dispute: Reports

MOUNT VERNON, NY — A Westchester man was arrested Wednesday night and charged in the fatal shooting of his 39-year-old niece.

The Mount Vernon man is accused of killing his family member in the Bronx, according to ABC7 New York. Police said 58-year-old Michael Foster was taken into custody just before 8 p.m. and charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon after Julia Anderson, also of Mount Vernon, was killed near Murdock and Nereid Avenues in Wakefield.

Gothamist reported investigators believe the killing stemmed from a dispute over who would inherit a home the two shared in Mount Vernon, according to the report.

Anderson was shot Monday just before midnight while sitting in or entering her Jeep near the Wakefield intersection, according to the New York Post. She was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Gothamist reported.

ABC7 reported that family members described Anderson as a hardworking woman who worked with people with disabilities, and her sister said she had finished a night shift at a group home for developmentally disabled adults in Wakefield.

"She didn't deserve to die that way," her sister, Jelisa Anderson, told Gothamist.

Anderson's mother, Beverly Patterson, said her daughter had just finished work and was headed home to Mount Vernon.

"My younger daughter came and she told me and my heart felt like it was going to come out," Patterson told ABC7.

Foster was awaiting arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court, according to Gothamist and the New York Post.

This story is developing and will be updated. For more information, see Gothamist, the New York Post and ABC7 New York.