Illegal rooming house where a man was stabbed to death housed homeless from Boston agency
FALL RIVER — The residents at an illegal rooming house at 234 Tripp St. where a man was stabbed to death on March 15 were placed there by St. Francis House, the Boston-based agency that assists and places the homeless.
On Monday, city Building Inspector Glenn Hathaway said he served the owner of the four-unit property, Jean Ralph Prophil, a cease-and-desist order at his North Main Street home, citing both zoning and building code violations and ordering the rooming house shuttered.
Hathaway said Prophil told him the last of the residents living in the Tripp Street property were moving out on Monday, the day the owner received the cease-and-desist order.
The Herald News made several requests for an interview from St. Francis House president and CEO Karen LaFrazia, but she was unavailable.
St. Francis House Vice President of Philanthropy and External Affairs Andrew Russell emailed the following statement:
"St. Francis House placed two formerly homeless people in an apartment in Fall River through the Rapid Rehousing program. Through this program, St. Francis House places people in communities throughout Eastern Massachusetts. At a time when adult shelters are overflowing, this program is designed to provide assistance and enable people to move from shelters to housing opportunities with rental assistance as they stabilize their lives. We are heartbroken at what has happened here."
The Tripp Street homicide: Fall River man accused of stabbing, stomping man to death faces murder charge
The stabbing at Tripp Street, and conditions in the rooming house
Tripp Street resident Pedro Fernando Orellano Alvarado, 42, is being held without bail for allegedly stabbing to death his roommate, Joseph Bump, 44, in the evening of March 15 after a day of drinking and arguing, according to court documents.
Alvarado is claiming he stabbed Bump in self-defense.
During his arraignment last week, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Walsh told the court that Alvarado and Bump lived in the rooming house as “roommates by circumstance” and not by choice.
It’s not clear how many residents from St. Francis lived at 234 Tripp St., but including Bump, there were at least seven people living in the four-unit apartment building, according police interviews during the investigation.
Bump, Alvarado and two other men lived in one of the apartments together.
Hathaway said he observed locked bedroom doors and bunk beds at the illegal rooming house.
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Police reported that one of the Tripp Street residents who had assisted a wounded Bump used her cellphone to videotape the struggle between the victim and Alvarado and the stabbing. She provided the video to investigators.
According to an arrest report, Bump was stabbed and the blade struck his heart. Bump was pronounced dead at Saint Anne’s Hospital despite efforts by rooming house neighbors, police and EMTs to revive him.
Alvarado allegedly admitted to a Fall River police officer that he stabbed Bump, which Walsh said was captured on police body-worn camera.
Violence at Tripp Street multi-family not an isolated incident
March 15 wasn’t the first time Alvarado and Bump interacted with police.
Alvarado was out on bail for an arrest in February, when he was charged with resisting arrest after a complaint that he threatened to stab another resident at the rooming house.
The day before the stabbing, on March 14, police were called to the rooming house. Bump had overdosed and was taken to Saint Anne’s Hospital. While being treated, he reported that he had been assaulted by his roommates earlier in the day.
A witness questioned on the night of the stabbing told police that she had called EMS the day before, when she found an overdosed Bump with a syringe in his hand “and pill bottles around him,” according to a police report.
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St. Francis House client said she informed authorities
Alvarado was arraigned on March 18 in Fall River District Court and charged with murder.
After the arraignment, a woman who declined to identify herself said she lived with her daughter in the apartment below Bump and Alvarado and their two roommates.
Visibly shaken, the woman indicated that there was violence at the rooming house before the stabbing.
“I let St. Francis know. I want justice for Joey, because the Fall River police failed us, St. Francis failed us,” said the woman.
She said she also informed the owner, Prophil, about the altercations, drinking and drug use.
She described Bump as a “very nice person” who had apologized to herself and daughter for the incident between the upstairs roommates the night before the stabbing.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Residents in Fall River illegal rooming house placed by Boston agency
