(NEW YORK) — The mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C., are offering a $70,000 reward in connection to deadly shootings involving people experiencing homelessness between the two cities.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the news in a rare joint press conference on Monday.
“Homelessness should not be a homicide,” Adams said. “This was a cold-blooded attack.”
Police are jointly investigating the shootings of five homeless people across both cities that they said may have been committed by the same suspect.
Because of similarities in “the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence,” both police departments in New York City and Washington D.C., will jointly investigate the shootings with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, they said in a Sunday news release.
The first shootings occurred in Washington on March 3, 8 and 9. The victim found on March 9 was discovered by police when they were responding to a tent fire in the city’s northeast. He succumbed to stab and gunshot wounds, according to an autopsy.
The two shootings in New York occurred on March 12. One victim was injured and another was killed, according to the joint news release.
NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and MPD Chief Robert J. Contee III said in the news release that they are committed to safety for homeless individuals and to finding the suspect in the shootings.
“Our homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual praying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime,” Sewell said in a statement.
“We are committed to sharing every investigative path, clue and piece of evidence with our law enforcement partners to bring this investigation to a swift conclusion and the individual behind these vicious crimes to justice,” Contee said.
Both communities “are heartbroken and disturbed by these heinous crimes in which an individual has been targeting some of our most vulnerable residents,” Adams and Bowser said in a statement on Sunday.
“It is heartbreaking and tragic to know that in addition to all the dangers that unsheltered residents face, we now have a cold-blooded killer on the loose, but we are certain that we will get the suspect off the street and into police custody,” they said.
The mayors said they spoke on Sunday about their cities working together on the investigation.
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