City officials hope a reward will help investigators track down a gunman wanted for shooting two homeless men in Manhattan on Saturday morning. NBC New York’s Ida Siegal reports.
Police are looking for a man who shot two homeless men in Manhattan within 90 minutes early Saturday, killing one, in what cops say appear to be targeted attacks.
Both victims were shot in Manhattan between 4:36 a.m. and 6 a.m., police said.
The suspect, pictured below, appeared to intentionally approach them separately on the street and shoot them, cops say. One of the men was on Lafayette Street. He was sleeping in a sleeping bag when he was shot, police say.
According to police, security video showed the suspect, wearing all black and a black ski mask, approaching and shooting the man in the sleeping bag about 10 blocks away and 90 minutes after the first attack.
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Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. A reward in the shooting has increased to $10,000.
Mayor Eric Adams condemned the attack as "horrific," and called the video chilling.
"We need to find this person, and we need New Yorkers to help us," he said.
Local
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.
CORRECTION
This story has been updated throughout to correct the condition of the shooting victims, to indicate that only one was killed.
