Four homeless men are battered to death in their sleep in New York’s Chinatown ‘by 24-year-old man with a metal object’

Daily Mail

New York City authorities said four men, who are believed to be homeless, were beaten to death with a ‘metal object’ while they were sleeping.

Officers responded to a 911 call for a person being assaulted in the vicinity of 2 Bowery in Manhattan’s Chinatown district around 1.49am Saturday morning. 

When responding officers arrived at the location, they found an unconscious male in his 60s lying on the ground with severe head trauma.

A second male, 49, who was also suffering from head trauma, approached officers at the scene. The elderly man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 49-year-old was rushed to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital where he remains in critical condition.

At that point, two witnesses told officers that ‘an unknown male, wearing a black jacket and black pants, struck the victim numerous times in the head with a metal object’.

Officers immediately began searching the area for the suspect and found a male fitting the description and carrying the metal object, which is believed to be a pipe, at the intersection of Mulberry Street and Canal Street.

Police said they arrested the 24-year-old man and recovered the metal pipe without incident. The suspect is also believed to be homeless.

Officers then expanded the search and found three more victims around 4am.

Two male victims were found in front of 2 East Broadway and one in front of 17 East Broadway.

All three had severe head trauma and were pronounced dead at the scene.

Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano said during a news conference that the suspect’s actions appear to have been ‘random acts’ rather than motivated by race or age.

Sources identified the suspect as Rodriguez Santos, according to the New York Post. Santos reportedly has 14 past arrests, including an assault charge.

The 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.

The NYPD is conducting a street-by-street canvass for any additional victims and an investigation is ongoing.

New York City’s homeless population has grown in recent years, to a great extent because of the lack of affordable housing.

The killings started on The Bowery, which cuts through Chinatown and has for decades been known as New York’s skid row, inhabited by homeless addicts and alcoholics.

During the day, the neighborhood is bustling with small businesses and street vendors offering discount goods, its sidewalks packed with pedestrians.

Late at night, when the shops close, it turns into a quiet, desolate neighborhood that was the setting for Saturday’s attacks.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7540719/Four-homeless-people-killed-sleep-battered-head-man.html