A man wielding a long metal object rampaged through New York City early Saturday attacking sleeping homeless people, killing four and leaving a fifth in critical condition.
New York Police Department Detective Annette Shelton said the men were brutally assaulted in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood with the object that authorities recovered.
Police responded to a 911 call just before 2 a.m. as one assault was in progress.
A 24-year-old suspect is in custody but has yet to be charged, the detective said.
The victims apparently were asleep when they were attacked in three different locations. The first died of blunt trauma to the head. A second man was attacked nearby but survived. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital in critical condition.
The other three victims, attacked about a block away, also died of trauma to the head.
The New York Post published photos of two of the victims under a white sheet, one slumped in a blood-spattered doorway. The other lay under a sheet on the sidewalk.
The identities of the victims have not been released.
Authorities were investigating the motive for the killings.
Sharp Rise in Murders; NYPD
Murders across all five boroughs in New York City rose sharply in the first two months of 2019, despite the New York Police Department (NYPD) noting that overall crime has declined.Misdemeanor sex crimes also spiked. While the first two months of 2018 saw 459 instances, so far this year, 580 cases have been reported—an increase of more than 26 percent. The number of both shooting incidents and shooting victims, meanwhile, saw no major changes when compared to 2018.
One such high-profile murder involved a fight that turned into a homicide at the 90th Street subway station in Queens in February. Graphic video of the incident—which took place in broad daylight—was circulated on social media. In a live press conference, it was revealed that the shooter was a 26-year-old MS-13 gang member, a notoriously violent gang known for its brutal methods of murder.
An NYPD spokesperson told The Epoch Times that they take every crime seriously and that "any murder or rape is one too many."
"Using data-driven precision to target crime, along with neighborhood policing, the NYPD has produced record-low crime," the department said via email. "The NYPD will use these proven tactics to address any temporary upticks, so that every New Yorker—regardless of zip code—can live in safety."