Police in Washington DC and New York said they were searching for a man believed to have attacked people sleeping on the streets in both cities, killing two and injuring three.
District of Columbia police said on Sunday investigators were working with the New York police department to find the man who left a victim in a burning tent after fatally shooting and stabbing him on Wednesday, then killed another man on Saturday in New York.
The suspect shot and injured two other people earlier in the month in Washington and one other person on Saturday in New York, police said.
“We are committed to sharing every investigative path, clue and piece of evidence with our law enforcement partners to bring this investigation to a swift conclusion and the individual behind these vicious crimes to justice,” said the Metropolitan police chief, Robert Contee, in a news release.
Police determined the same person committed the attacks based on similarities in each shooting and evidence recovered. The victims were attacked without provocation, police said.
“Given the similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence, the NYPD, MPDC and the ATF [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] will jointly investigate these offenses,” a joint statement said.
The New York police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said the “homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual preying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime”.
The New York mayor, Eric Adams, said a taskforce composed of police officers and a homeless outreach team would focus on finding unhoused people in subways and other locations and urge them to seek refuge at city shelters.
In a joint statement, Adams and the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, said: “The rise in gun violence has shaken all of us and it is particularly horrible to know that someone is out there deliberately doing harm to an already vulnerable population.
“We are also calling on unsheltered residents to seek shelter.”
At a news conference, Adams said: “The case is a clear and horrific intentional act of taking the life of someone, it appears, because he was homeless. Two individuals were shot while sleeping on the streets, not committing a crime but sleeping on the streets.”
Authorities are offering $55,000 for information resulting in an arrest, with the MPD offering up to $25,000, NYPD $10,000 and the ATF Washington Field division $20,000.
The attacks are reminiscent of the beating deaths of four homeless men as they slept on the streets in Chinatown in New York in the fall of 2019. Another homeless man, Randy Santos, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
