Man accused of shooting 5 homeless people, 2 fatally, in New York and D.C. is arrested

WASHINGTON (TCD) -- A man believed to have been targeting homeless men in New York and D.C. and shooting them was arrested in the early hours of March 15.

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department tweeted at 2:40 a.m. local time that they took the suspect into custody and were interviewing him at the department’s Homicide Branch.

Though the suspect’s name was not released, both the D.C. police and the New York Police Department shared several photos online of the man they say shot five people, at least two of them fatally.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke in a joint briefing Monday, March 14, about the attacks.

Adams said, "Homelessness should not be a homicide," and said the shootings were a "cold-blooded attack."

On March 13, NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee III announced in a press release that they believe the shootings in the two cities are related. They said their officers will work alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) during the investigation.

According to the statement, the first attack reportedly occurred Thursday, March 3, at 4 a.m. An adult male was found on the 1100 block of New York Avenue Northeast suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

On March 8, officers responded to the 1700 block of H Street Northeast at 1:21 a.m. for another shooting call. The male victim was also taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The next morning, on March 9 at 2:54 a.m., Metropolitan Police Department officials observed a tent fire in the 400 block of New York Avenue Northeast. D.C. Fire and EMS arrived at the scene to extinguish the blaze and reportedly found the "remains of an adult male which displayed no signs of life." He was pronounced dead at the scene. His cause of death was determined to be "multiple stab and gunshot wounds."

Similar attacks reportedly occurred days later in New York City.

On March 12 at approximately 4:30 a.m., a 38-year-old man was reportedly shot in the arm while he was sleeping on King Street near Varick Street.

Later that day at 5 p.m., NYPD responded to calls of a man suffering from gunshot wounds to his head and neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The statement says witnesses "reported hearing gunshots at approximately 6 a.m."

The two police departments said they will investigate jointly with the ATF because of the "similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, the circumstances of the victims, and information from ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network."

A law enforcement official identified the suspect as 30-year-old Gerald Brevard to The Associated Press. He reportedly lives in the D.C. area and has a criminal history.

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