US police arrest suspected gunman over deaths of homeless people
A gunman suspected of stalking homeless people asleep on the streets of New York City and Washington DC, killing at least two and wounding three, was arrested early on Tuesday, police said.
Law enforcement arrested the man in Washington, Metropolitan police (MPD) said on Twitter. Police in the two cities released surveillance photographs including a close-up clearly showing the man’s face, and urged people who might know him to come forward.
“Additional information will be forthcoming,” said the MPD statement, which did not disclose the man’s identity. “Thanks to the community for all your tips.”
Advocates for the homeless were relieved by the arrest but urged officials in both cities, which have significant populations of people without permanent shelter, to provide more assistance.
“The urgency of helping people move in off the streets must remain because this is only the latest example of the risks faced by people without housing,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City.
“It’s not the first time that people have been the victims of violence or even homicides because of their housing status.”
On Monday, the mayors of New York and Washington appealed to the public for help in the search for the gunman. Eric Adams and Muriel Bowser urged anyone living on the streets to go to city shelters.
“We know that our unsheltered residents already face a lot of daily dangers and it is unconscionable that anybody would target this vulnerable population,” Bowser said.
Adams said police and homeless outreach teams would focus on finding unhoused people in subways and other locations.
In Washington, outreach workers passed out flyers urging people to “be vigilant” and featuring pictures of the suspect.
Investigators in the two cities began to suspect a link on Sunday after a Metropolitan police homicide captain, a former New York resident, saw photos released on Saturday night by the New York police department. The man in those photos looked similar to the one being sought by the captain’s own department.
The DC police chief, Robert Contee, said that without that officer making the connection, “it could have been months” before the link was discovered.
The earliest known shooting happened at around 4am on 3 March in Washington, police said, when a man was wounded. A second man was wounded on 8 March, just before 1.30am. At 3am the next day police and firefighters found a dead man inside a burning tent. He was thought to have suffered fatal burns but an autopsy revealed he died of multiple stab and gunshot wounds.
The killer then traveled north to New York, police said. At 4.30am on Saturday, a 38-year-old man sleeping on the street in Manhattan not far from the Holland Tunnel was shot in his right arm. The victim screamed and the gunman fled, police said.
About 90 minutes later, the gunman fatally shot another man in Soho, police said.
“He looked around,” Adams said. “He made sure no one was there. And he intentionally took the life of an innocent person.”
The man’s body was found in his sleeping bag just before 5pm on Saturday. He had been shot in the head and neck, said Julie Bolcer, a spokesperson for the New York City medical examiner. He has not been officially identified, but he was known among others who live out on the streets, Bolcer said. The victim lay in the street for hours before authorities were summoned.
“We don’t know at this point who this is, whether or not they might have family who might might claim their body,” said James Winans, chief executive officer of the Bowery Mission,
which takes in scores of homeless people every night and is just blocks from where the man’s body was found.
Kess Abraham, who became homeless last month, said he was “pained” to learn of “a guy who lived on the streets who probably was minding his own business getting murdered for no reason”.
“Any one of us who’s homeless could have went to that same situation,” Abraham said.
The attacks were reminiscent of the beating deaths of four homeless men in Chinatown in late 2019. Another homeless man, Randy Santos, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in those attacks.
A year ago, four people were stabbed in New York, two fatally, by a man who randomly attacked homeless people in the subway system. That assailant, who was homeless, is awaiting trial.
Adams has been criticized by some anti-poverty advocates for his plan to remove homeless people from the subway system by deploying police and mental health workers.
Adams on Monday defended the policy, saying it was designed to protect both commuters and homeless residents.
“There is nothing dignified about allowing people to sleep on subway platforms,” he said.