NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of Brooklyn social justice activist Ryan Carson in an unprovoked attack in 2023, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Wednesday.
Brian Dowling, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and accepted the judge’s offer of 20 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. He is expected to be formally sentenced on Feb. 19.
Just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 2, 2023, Dowling was angrily walking and kicking parked scooters near Malcolm X Boulevard and Lafayette Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
According to the evidence, which includes clear video of the incident, Dowling spotted Carson walking behind him with his girlfriend and began to yell at him.
“I’m going to kill you,” Dowling said before swinging a knife at Carson. He struck the victim, who placed himself between the attacker and his girlfriend and was trying to deescalate the confrontation.
After being stabbed Carson tried to flee, but he tripped over a bus stop bench.
Dowling then ran up to Carson and stabbed him multiple times as he lay on the ground, piercing his heart and killing him, prosecutors said.
After throwing the knife, Dowling returned moments later to retrieve it, and a search later revealed the murder weapon hidden under greenery next to a nearby sidewalk.
Dowling turned himself in later that week, and when a search warrant was executed at his apartment, officials discovered multiple knives with similar handles to that recovered from near the murder scene.
Clothes matching the ones worn by the assailant were also recovered.
“Such an unconscionable crime requires the separation of this defendant from our society for a very long time, which is ensured by the promised sentence he’s now facing,” Gonzalez said. “Ryan was passionate about making our city a better place and I hope that today’s outcome will bring his loved ones a small sense of closure.”
Carson was an employee at the New York Public Research Group and an advocate for drug overdose prevention.