Suspect held in 4 NYC beating deaths
NEW YORK — A homeless man wielding a long metal bar rampaged through New York City’s Chinatown early Saturday attacking other homeless people who were sleeping, killing four and leaving a fifth with serious injuries, police said.
Police recovered the weapon, which was still in the suspect’s hands when he was arrested, officials said.
“The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks,” Michael Baldassano, chief of the Manhattan South detective bureau, said at a Saturday news conference, adding there was no evidence yet that the victims were “targeted by race, age, anything of that nature.”
Two law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Randy Rodriguez Santos, 24. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because criminal charges hadn’t yet been finalized.
Santos was taken into police custody early Saturday. Police say he has been arrested at least a half-dozen other times in the past two years, three times on assault charges. It wasn’t clear whether he had a lawyer to speak for him.
The victims, all men, were attacked as they slept in doorways and sidewalks in three places in Chinatown, which is packed during daylight hours but empties out at night.
Police responded to a 911 call just before 2 a.m. as one assault was in progress. They found one man dead in the street and a second with critical head injuries.
A search of the neighborhood turned up three additional bodies.