Authorities say a long-running dispute over a shared family home preceded the fatal shooting in the Bronx.
NEW YORK CITY, NY — A Mount Vernon man has been charged with murder after authorities accused him of fatally shooting his niece near her workplace in the Bronx during a family dispute over ownership of a home.
Michael Foster, 58, was arrested Wednesday and charged in the death of Julia Anderson, 39, police said. The charges include murder, manslaughter and 10 counts of criminal possession of a weapon. Foster is accused of shooting Anderson shortly before midnight Monday near Murdock and Nereid avenues in the Wakefield section of the Bronx.
Police responding to a 911 call at about 11:56 p.m. found Anderson suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to her abdomen near a vehicle. She was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to police accounts. Foster was arraigned Thursday and ordered held without bail, according to reports from the court proceeding.
Law enforcement sources told several news organizations that the shooting followed a bitter disagreement over a family home on Bell Avenue in Mount Vernon. Foster and Anderson were reported to have shared an address at the property, less than a mile from where Anderson was shot. The claim that the property dispute led to the killing remains an allegation and has not been proven in court.
Authorities allege Anderson was shot as she approached or entered her Jeep after finishing work nearby. She worked as an aide caring for people with developmental disabilities, according to her family and published reports. Investigators said the person responsible for the shooting left the area after the attack.
Police searched the Mount Vernon residence connected to Foster and Anderson after the shooting. A criminal complaint said investigators recovered two semiautomatic pistols and a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle from Foster’s home. Authorities have not publicly said whether any of the recovered weapons was conclusively linked to the shooting.
Anderson and Foster had been involved in a legal fight over ownership and documents connected to the Mount Vernon property, according to court records described in published reports. Anderson filed a federal lawsuit in October after she was arrested in April 2025 on allegations involving family property documents. Her lawsuit disputed the basis for that arrest and sought damages from Westchester County officials. The claims in that civil case had not been resolved before her death.
At Foster’s arraignment, a Bronx prosecutor told the judge that Foster had previously been convicted of first-degree manslaughter. State correctional records cited in news reports show he received a sentence of four to 20 years for his role in a 1988 fatal shooting and was released in 1999. That earlier conviction is separate from the new case and does not establish guilt in Anderson’s death.
Anderson’s mother, Beverley Patterson, told local news outlets that her daughter was a caring person who had gone to work before the family learned she had been killed. Anderson was nearing her 40th birthday, her mother said. Family members described her death as sudden and devastating.
Foster is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The case remains pending in Bronx criminal court, and authorities have not publicly released additional evidence establishing how the weapons recovered in Mount Vernon may relate to Anderson’s death.
Author note: Last updated July 17, 2026.