The police in New York City and Washington are heightening their search on gunmen who are targeting and shooting homeless people on the streets. Five of those homeless men have been shot. It all happened early Saturday morning in Manhattan when a man sleeping by the doorway was shot in the head. Therefore, Mayor Eric Adams’s presses on the homeless population to seek shelter.
Mayor Adams said, “It is heartbreaking and tragic to know that in addition to all the dangers that unsheltered residents face, we now have a coldblooded killer on the loose, but we are certain that we will get the suspect off the street and into police custody.” Three more men were shot on March 3rd and March 9th in Washington. Later on Saturday, two homeless people were killed in Manhattan. The man who got shot 8n Manhattan was additionally stabbed many times and his tent was set on fire.
From there, the police departments decided to include the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to investigate this killer. They are offering a $25,000 reward for anyone who can provide information about this killer. The police in New York are offering a lower amount of the reward, starting at $10,000.
Mayor Adams wants to remove homeless people from staying in the subway as their free hotel. The shootings coincidentally occurred near this time. Activists complain that New York City doesn’t provide affordable housing in the city, pushing people to the brink of homelessness in the streets. The shortage of housing for homeless people is one part of the problem. The other problem is that some homeless people refuse to stay in homeless shelters because they have to put up with specific rules and regulations that don’t accommodate their way of living. With no home to protect the people on the streets, homeless people are prone to random attacks.
On Wednesday, police officers and firefighters went to New York Avenue to put out a tent fire. They found out the man living in that tent was shot and stabbed to death. Another incident occurred in SoHo when a man in the sleeping bag was shot in his sleep.
Like many New Yorkers, this has been a horrible act upon those who are vulnerable in the streets. Life has already been tough without a home, yet homeless people have to put up with shootings and stabbings unknowingly. Though homeless people are seen in a bad light due to their previous actions in pushing people off subway tracks and killing others, there are also innocent homeless people out there.
“We need to find this person, and we need New Yorkers to help us,” Mayor Adams said.
