NYC Police Seek Man Who Killed 1 Homeless Man, Wounded 2nd

NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City were searching for a man who authorities say shot and killed one homeless person and wounded another in separate street attacks.

The shootings occurred early Saturday morning, according to the NYPD.

In the first, a sleeping victim was shot in the right arm in the SoHo neighborhood at approximately 4:30 a.m. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital and listed as stable.

According to police, security video showed the suspect, wearing all black and a black ski mask, approaching and shooting a man in a sleeping bag about 10 blocks away and 90 minutes after the first attack. Police found the victim at approximately 4 p.m. Saturday and he was pronounced dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head and neck.

“The case is a clear and horrific intentional act of taking the life of someone, it appears, because he was homeless,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference. “Two individuals were shot while sleeping on the streets, not committing a crime but sleeping on the streets.”

Adams said a task force composed of police officers and a homeless outreach team would focus on finding unhoused people in the subways and other locations and would urge them to seek refuge at city-owned shelters.

In response to a recent surge in crime on the subway system, Adams implemented an aggressive enforcement campaign to clear the subways of homeless and connect them with shelters, food banks and other services, and also enforce rules barring smoking, drinking, sleeping across train seats, behaving aggressively and riding without paying fares.

In the first week, police said they had arrested 143 people in the city’s subways and removed 455 people from from trains and stations.

The attacks were reminiscent of the beating deaths of four homeless men as they slept on the streets in New York’s Chinatown in the fall of 2019. Another homeless man, Randy Santos, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in those attacks.