Bronx sex-slay suspect West Spruill was long obsessed with the pretty homeless-shelter director he allegedly targeted for rape and murder this week — and even tried to shower her with affection before he ended her life, a close pal said.
“He told her she was beautiful,” said Elizabeth Chang, referring to Spruill’s advances on her pal, whom he ambushed and killed Monday as she was walking to her car after work, cops said.
Chang, 34, worked alongside Ana Charle as a psychiatric nurse practitioner at the Project Renewal shelter in Wakefield, and said the victim was skilled at deflecting the sexual attention of the all-male clientele.
“It’s not uncommon for a lot of residents to express attraction to the female staff,” Chang said. “Ana was very firm in her boundaries.
“We learn to redirect them,” she added. “We tell them it’s inappropriate.”
But Spruill was more persistent than most of the other residents at the Bronx Boulevard facility, with some of his former shelter-mates telling The Post that he would regularly put his hands on the women who worked there.
Spruill had eyes for Charle until he was transferred to a facility in Manhattan in January, Chang said. But the maniac returned Monday night and waited outside with a pistol, wrist-ties and a scrap of paper bearing the woman’s license-plate number.
Before she could reach her car, Spruill ordered her into the back seat and undress. She complied, but managed to flee the car before he could rape her.
As Charle ran down the dead-end street naked, Spruill shot her multiple times and left her bullet-riddled body on the road, police sources said.
“It was something that none of us saw coming,” Chang said, but added that there had been recent incidents in which shelter workers had been harassed.
Meanwhile, Charle’s family members arrived from their native Spain to begin planning her funeral, which will likely take place in her homeland, said Chang, who set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for the victim’s 9- and 10-year-old daughters.
“They both lost their mother at a crucial time in their lives,” Chang said.
“One of the girls, when she heard about the news, said, “Why my Mommy? Why did he kill my mommy?”