A 17-year-old has been arrested in the deadly stabbing of a man in Times Square earlier this week, on Thursday, the police say. The suspect told the police that killing the 39-year-old, Leonidas Baez, started as a social media trend on Monday night. Baez was sleeping on the sidewalk when the teen approached and started antagonizing him, a source said.
The suspect added that he and his two accomplices picked the victim at random as part of an online trend that encourages “messing with crackheads.” It was said to be TikTok trend police said.
The police are still searching for the two other suspects, and it is not clear if the video was captured for social media purposes.
Just before 11:30 pm, Baez was stabbed in the face, chest, and back outside the Burger and Lobster restaurant on 43rd Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Baez, whose last known address was a shelter, was asleep before the confrontation, police said.
Police started to search for the three men who ran from the scene, heading east. On Thursday morning, the NYPD said they had arrested a 17-year-old male. His name has yet to be released due to his age. The 17-year-old is facing murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges.
Officers stopped the suspect after he jumped a turnstile at the Stillwell Avenue subway station. Officers found a scalpel on him, and they quickly determined he was wanted for questioning in the Times Square incident.
Medics rushed Baez to Bellevue Hospital, but he could not be saved. He lived in Worcester, Mass, according to the cops. His sister described him as a free-spirited “wanderer” who was homeless by choice.
“He was such a loving person,” the sister, who declined to give her name, said of her free-spirited brother. “He was loved by everybody.”
“Why? What was the point?” his sister said of the slaying. “Were you that bored that you had to bother somebody? You getting brownie points to dehumanize somebody?”
