NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A suspected serial killer was arrested Tuesday for shooting five homeless men, two fatally, in unprovoked attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., over the course of 10 days.
The suspect was arrested around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C., near the border with Maryland, by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the agency said. He was questioned by homicide detectives from D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
He has been identified as 30-year-old Gerald Brevard, of Southeast D.C.
MPD Chief Robert Contee, who acknowledged on Tuesday the "outstanding work" of their partners, said Brevard is facing several charges, including first-degree murder, assault with intent to kill and more.
The gunman struck three times in Washington—on March 3, March 8 and March 9—and twice in Manhattan on March 12, the NYPD and the MPD said in a joint news release late Sunday.
On March 13, at 5:20 a.m., Brevard was back in D.C. and shortly thereafter, detectives with the Metropolitan Police contacted the NYPD, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig during a Tuesday briefing.
Essig noted that a former Queens resident and D.C. Metropolitan detective noticed the description of the person of interest wanted in those D.C. shootings matched the NYPD's description.
By 2 p.m. Sunday, Essig said it was confirmed that all five shootings were matches and "a ballistics lead."
He noted the coordination between the ATF, FBI, Metropolitan and NYPD Police Departments were "extraordinary."
Essig said Brevard is a suspect in the D.C. shootings but, at this time, only considered a "strong" person of interest in New York City.
He has since been charged with crimes committed in D.C. only as investigations into the New York City shootings are ongoing.
Essig said the department received over a dozen Crime Stoppers tips and is sending detectives to interview him.
He said the department working is with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office "to bring these horrible crimes to a successful conclusion."
He said the NYPD is continuing to seek tips to strengthen their criminal case.
"We don't have enough to make an arrest. We are working with The Manhattan District Attorney. We're gathering all our evidence," Essig said.
Contee said Tuesday that an anonymous tip provided officials with a possible identity, and Brevard later allegedly posted a photo in D.C. on social media.
Following more tips, the chief said authorities began to look for Brevard. He was eventually located near a Citgo gas station on Pennsylvania Ave. in Southeast D.C.
Brevard was found without a weapon, but Contee said officials believe it is him.
"We do not have a firearm, but based on all the evidence we pulled together... we believe we have enough probable cause to charge this individual," he added.
Conteee said he believed the attacks were random and identified the one fatality allegedly killed by Brevard as 54 year-old Morgan Holmes, who was homeless.
Earlier, Mayor Eric Adams and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser credited the swift coordination between the two police departments and the ATF. It was ATF agents who took Brevard into custody before handing him over to the MPD, according to the ATF’s Twitter feed.
“We said that the work to remove this man from our streets was urgent, and our communities responded,” Bowser said in a joint statement with Adams on Tuesday. “We know that this experience has been especially scary for our residents experiencing homelessness. Our work continues to end homelessness and ensure all residents have access to safe and affordable housing.”
The arrest came hours after police in both New York and D.C. released clear photos of the suspect and offered a $70,000 reward. They said images of the suspect, ballistics from the scenes and his modus operandi linked him to all five of the crimes.
All five homeless victims were shot on the street “without provocation” by “the same suspect,” according to the police departments. Chilling video from one of the New York shootings shows the gunman cautiously walking up to one of the victims and kicking him several times before fatally shooting him at point-blank range.
“Given the similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence, the NYPD, the MPDC and the ATF will jointly investigate these offenses,” the police departments said.
The three D.C. victims included a man who was shot and wounded on March 3, a man who was shot and wounded on March 8, and a man who was fatally shot and stabbed on March 9. In the third incident, authorities said a police officer found the victim inside a burning tent; an autopsy revealed stab and gunshot wounds on him.
Two more men were attacked in Lower Manhattan early Saturday morning, police said.
The first victim, 38, was shot in the arm on King Street, between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue in Hudson Square, around 5 a.m. Saturday. Police said he was sleeping on the street when a man came up and shot him before fleeing east down King Street. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
About an hour later, a man was shot in the head as he was lying in a sleeping bag near Howard and Lafayette streets on the border of SoHo and Tribeca, police said. NYPD officers responding to a 911 call around 5 p.m. that day found the man in the sleeping bag with a gunshot wound to his head and neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
A third homeless man was found dead in Tribeca on Sunday evening, but police didn’t immediately link his death to the other attacks. The 43-year-old man was found dead in a sleeping bag around 6:30 p.m. at Greenwich and Murray streets in Tribeca. Police said they couldn’t find any bullet or stab wounds on his body and weren’t immediately sure how he died. The medical examiner is working to determine his cause of death.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the city’s “homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual preying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime. We will use every tool, every technique and every partner to bring the killer to justice.”
Adams said Sunday that a task force composed of NYPD officers and a homeless outreach team would focus on finding unhoused people in the subway and other locations and would urge them to seek refuge at city-owned shelters.
“The case is a clear and horrific intentional act of taking the life of someone, it appears, because he was homeless,” Adams said at a news conference. “Two individuals were shot while sleeping on the streets, not committing a crime but sleeping on the streets.”
The attacks were reminiscent of the beating deaths of four homeless men as they slept on the streets in Manhattan’s Chinatown in the fall of 2019. Another homeless man, Randy Santos, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in those attacks.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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