NEW YORK (AP) — A search was underway Monday for a gunman who has been stalking homeless men sleeping on the streets of Washington, D.C., & New York City, fatally shooting 2 people & wounding 3 more in less than 2 weeks.
Police released surveillance photographs of the suspected gunman late Sunday, including 1 in which the hooded man can be seen holding a pistol in a blue glove.
The killer’s motive — if any — was unknown & authorities turned their attention Monday to trying to offer what protections they could to homeless people who might become targets.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said police officers & homeless outreach teams would focus on finding unhoused people in the subways & other locations & would urge them to seek refuge at city-owned shelters.
“The case is a clear & horrific intentional act of taking the life of someone, it appears, because he was homeless,” Adams said at a news conference late Sunday. “2 individuals were shot while sleeping on the streets, not committing a crime but sleeping on the streets.”
In Washington, city outreach workers were passing out flyers among the homeless population, urging people to “be vigilant” and featuring multiple pictures of the suspect.
“Our shelters have space and are ready to welcome residents needing a place to stay,” the flyers stated.
The latest violence underscored the urgency to get the homeless off the streets & into safe housing, said Jacquelyn Simone, the policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City.
“The reason that these people were attacked is because they didn’t have that safety of permanent housing,” she said. “And that’s why we really need to use these tragedies as an opportunity to redouble our efforts to ensure that people have a better option than the streets where they’re exposed to both the elements as well as people who might wish to do them harm.”
Simone & other advocates for the homeless called on the city to use vacant hotel rooms for temporary shelter for those who would rather stay on the streets rather than opt in dormitory-style housing.
The earliest known shooting happened at around 4 a.m. on March 3 in Washington D.C., police said, when a man was shot & wounded in the city’s Northeast section. A second man was wounded on March 8, just before 1:30 a.m.
At 3 a.m. the next day, March 9, police & firefighters found a dead man inside a burning tent. A subsequent autopsy revealed that the man had died of multiple stab & gunshot wounds.
The killer then apparently traveled north to New York City.
At 4:30 a.m. Saturday, a 38-year-old man sleeping on the street in Manhattan not far from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel was shot in his right arm as he slept.
The victim screamed & the gunman fled.
About 90 minutes later, the gunman fatally shot another man on Lafayette Street in SoHo. The man’s body was found in his sleeping bag just before 5 p.m. Saturday.
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