Police have stepped up surveillance and residents are taking precautions after a string of violent attacks last month in the vicinity of Kingsbridge Road and Morris Avenue that left one man dead and five others hospitalized.

After the death of musician and social worker Jose Mateo, 50, on June 24, the Police Department released details of the attacks and appealed for the public’s help in identifying the attackers.

Mateo and another man were attacked June 1.

According to news accounts, as many as 10 young men in their 20s surrounded the victims and beat them. News reports also said that the same group attacked four more times, on June 22 and 23 and that all the victims were Hispanic men.

On June 27, police reported that they had arrested Robert Robertson, 23, of Manhattan, and charged him with the murder of Mateo. Police are looking for at least two other suspects who may have contributed to the death of Mateo, but all they have are street names at this point, said Lieutenant Steve Phalen, director of special operations at the 52nd Precinct.

Some people in the area suggested that the attacks may have been racially motivated. Robertson is black and Mateo is Hispanic. Since the attacks, a mobile surveillance tower, known as a Sky Watch, has been stationed on the corner of Kingsbridge Road and Morris Avenue and people in the neighborhood report increased police patrols.  

Francia Perez, an employee at the 99-cent store on that block, said she was aware of the attacks but felt comfortable now that police have stepped up their presence in the area.

For others, the security measures didn’t come soon enough.

"It’s a hot block. They have that police tower here now, but it’s too late," said a father of two who didn’t want to be identified.

"The area is horrible, the kids are really bad," said Beatriz Lake, who lives a couple of blocks from the surveillance site. She had heard an account of a 20-year-old who lost an eye in a recent assault. But since they put the NYPD unit there, it’s been quiet, she said.

Lake was heartbroken over the death of Mateo, who was her social worker at the local job center for the past three years. "He was a tremendous person and a tremendous social worker," she said in Spanish.