ANGER BOILS AS SUSPECT FACES COURT
Sent to Bridgewater as ‘risk to harm self or others’
A 31-year-old woman attending her first book club meeting at a Worcester restaurant was tracked down by her ex-boyfriend who police say stabbed her repeatedly, killing her.
Amanda Dabrowski had just come out of the restroom at O’Connor’s Restaurant shortly before 8 p.m. on Wednesday when Carlos Asencio found her and stabbed her 15 to 20 times, according to a police report.
Asencio, 28, of Derry, N.H., was arraigned Friday and was sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for observation. A not guilty plea was entered for him in Worcester Central District Court. His immigration status, which was under review, showed he was a U.S. citizen.
During Wednesday’s attack, several restaurant patrons heard her screams and wrestled Asencio to the floor.
Eleven members of the book club — O’Connor’s Books, Brews and Banter Reading Group — had met that night to discuss “Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise,” by Ruth Reichl, the last editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Gourmet magazine.
Restaurant owner Brendan O’Connor called the attack “shocking, not random … and obviously horrific from a business owner’s point of view.
“We’ve been here 31 years, and we don’t even hear raised voices in here, except maybe a couple of high-spirited Yankee fans,” said O’Connor, who held a prayer meeting with his staff before opening Friday. “God can’t let a bastard like this attack a girl just here for a book club meeting.”
In the surveillance video, he said, Dabrowski can be seen smiling moments before she comes face-toface with her alleged attacker near the exit to the restaurant.
“She was smiling, not a care in the world,” O’Connor said. “But he doesn’t define how we react to this.”
Dabrowski was rushed to UMass Memorial Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery but was later pronounced dead.
Asencio, who had a prior dating relationship with the victim, faces charges of murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, armed assault with intent to murder, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and resisting arrest.
Judge Steven Power sent him to Bridgewater State Hospital on the recommendation of Stephanie Hansen, a court-appointed forensic psychologist, who said Asencio has had auditory hallucinations, “explosive episodes,” a 2008 suicide attempt and a long history of untreated depression.
“It is my opinion that he poses a substantial risk of harm to himself and others,” Hansen said.
A woman seated in the courtroom went to lash out at Asencio as he was taken out, but she was held back by three other people sitting with her.
Two women told officers they were members of the book club and had met Dabrowski for the first time at the restaurant to discuss a book, the police report said.
She told them she had dinner plans after their meeting and excused herself to go to the restroom, the report said..
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office said that shortly before 5 a.m. April 21, Asencio broke into the victim’s Ayer home wearing a mask and carrying a handgun and stun gun, which he used to shock the woman.
After he attacked her, Asencio fled the house — and then the country, first crossing the Canadian border and then ending up in Mexico, Ryan’s office said Thursday.
On Wednesday, patrons inside O’Connor’s rushed to help pull Asencio away — with one man getting slashed — but they were too late, police said.