(WASHINGTON) — In his first court appearance on Wednesday, a judge denied the release of the suspect accused of a series of shootings targeting homeless people in Washington, D.C., and New York.
30-year-old Gerald Brevard III appeared in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia where he is facing charges stemming from three attacks on homeless people in D.C., including one murder.
Brevard is accused of five shootings of people experiencing homelessness, two of which were fatal, in New York and D.C. this month.
In D.C., Brevard is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill and first-degree murder while armed.
According to investigators, the same firearm was used in the D.C. shootings and firearm casings from the New York shootings have been preliminarily linked to the same gun, court filings show.
Attorneys for Brevard claimed prosecutors did not prove probable cause and requested his release.
Attorneys for Brevard listed inconsistencies in some of the witness descriptions, claiming Brevard did not meet the descriptions of the shooter, and requested that he be released, but the judge sided with prosecutors, saying they had established probable cause.
Prosecutors said that cellphone evidence places Brevard in D.C. and New York at the times of the shootings and that the incidents were unprovoked attacks against vulnerable people, some of whom were sleeping when they were shot.
Prosecutors also noted that the attacks were all committed within a short period of time, with all five shootings happening between March 3 and March 12.
The judge found probable cause, saying the inconsistencies in the case against Brevard does not defeat the probable cause.
Brevard is set to appear again in court in April.
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