(Bloomberg) -- Police in New York City and Washington, D.C., and federal agencies are offering a combined $70,000 reward for information on a man suspected of shooting men experiencing homelessness in both cities.
Between March 3 and March 9, three men were shot in Washington, one fatally. This past weekend, at least two men were shot in New York City and one died, according to a joint statement from New York Mayor Eric Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“Homelessness should not be a homicide,” Adams said at a press conference with Bowser in Washington on Monday evening. “This was a cold-blooded attack.”
District of Columbia Police Chief Robert Contee said that a police captain who is a native of Queens realized the cases were connected when he was scrolling through social media over the weekend and saw the image of a suspect in New York who fit the description of the D.C. gunman.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then confirmed that the attacks were linked, Contee said.
In an interview earlier Monday, Bowser added that Washington's Metropolitan Police Department first contacted the ATF, because, she said, gun violence is rare among people experiencing homelessness. “It usually involved a knife or a fight, rarely a gun,” Bowser added.
After sharing the information with the ATF, the agency determined the same gun was used in all five shootings. But Bowser said it remains unclear where the suspect was from. “We're still looking for him,” she said. “The pictures are so good that I feel like somebody is going to identify him.”
The homicide victim in Washington was shot and stabbed and the tent he was sleeping in was set on fire, Contee added.
The mayors called on residents living on the streets to seek shelter.
New York and D.C. police are offering $25,000 apiece and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the shootings.
Adams, who blamed the attacks on the “over-proliferation of guns,” called on members of the public to study the images shared by both police departments of the suspect.
“Someone knows this person,” he said. “We're asking for the public to help find him.”
New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that investigators are working with other cities to see if any other shootings might be related.
In Washington, violent crime is up 20% so far this year compared with the same period of 2021. New York City shooting incidents are up 14% this year compared with the year before.
‘Number One Issue'
The attacks of a vulnerable population come as the mayors have grappled with high-profile outbursts of violence, along with increases in certain categories of crime that have hamstrung efforts to draw tourists and restart their economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
In New York, shooting incidents are up 14% this year compared with the year before. In a separate attack over the weekend, a man who was denied entry to the Museum of Modern Art stabbed two employees at the reception desk on Saturday afternoon. The police said the man's membership had expired as a result of two incidents involving disorderly conduct.
In D.C., violent crime is up 20% so far this year compared with the same period of 2021.
“The crime issue I put as our number one issue, followed closely by homelessness,” Bowser said on Monday.
Bowser, who is up for re-election, issued a warning to other Democratic leaders before the 2022 midterm elections. “Take the issues around public safety and homelessness seriously because people feel scared and I haven't felt this kind of level of fear,” she said. “I would pay a lot of attention to that.”
She also said that there has been a shift of tone among some City Council members and Washington residents regarding committing more money to confront crime, as well as a pilot program geared toward clearing two dozen homeless encampments and directing people without housing to the city's shelters. “So far, they are working,” she said. “people are accepting housing.”
“The work to get this individual off our streets before he hurts or murders another individual is urgent,” the mayors said in the statement. “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.”
Washington and New York State have among the highest rates of homelessness in the country, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A D.C. point-in-time count found that the number of sheltered homeless people has dropped slightly over the past few years, though the population of unsheltered homeless individuals increased more than 4% to 681.
New York City has also seen its share of individuals in its shelter system decrease slightly over the past few years. A January 2021 survey found nearly 2,400 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on the city's streets and in its subway system, according to the city. Despite those numbers trending downward, the population of single adults in the city's shelter system has nearly doubled since fiscal 2012 to an average of 16,591 per day.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
