Washington police on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of shooting five homeless people in the US capital and New York, two of whom died, authorities said.
Two men were killed and three injured in the attacks that occurred over the past 10 days. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and her New York counterpart Eric Adams called the suspect a “ruthless killer.”
Police said in a tweet Tuesday that the detainee was being questioned by the authorities.
The first armed attack occurred in the early morning of March 3 in northeastern Washington. The victim was admitted to a hospital with minor injuries, according to authorities. A second homeless man was shot five days later, also in northeastern Washington. Both survived.
The next day a man was found dead and the tent in which he lived had been burned. The autopsy revealed that he had been shot and stabbed multiple times.
According to investigators, the alleged murderer then traveled to New York, some 400 km north, where in the early hours of Saturday he committed two new attacks.
A 38-year-old man was shot in the arm during the night, police said. Half an hour later, police found the lifeless body of another man in a sleeping bag in the same neighborhood. He had been shot in the neck and head.
“Our homeless population is one of the most vulnerable, and having a person stalk them in their sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said this week.
md/ssy/rsr/ll