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“We’re coming for you!”
That’s the message New York Mayor Eric Adams and Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser conveyed, along with their top cops to the prime suspect in two murders and three attempted homicides targeting homeless men in both cities as they unveiled a new high-resolution photo of the alleged gunman.
Additionally, the officials disclosed, all five of the shootings were linked to the same gun during the afternoon press conference in the nation’s capital — and that the death of a sixth homeless man in Manhattan over the weekend was not linked to the spree.
“We don’t want to lose another resident in this city, in New York, or anyone else,” said Adams. “This person is carrying out a premeditated act of shooting innocent people.”
Washington D.C.’s police chief, Robert Contee IIIl, vowed the killer would be caught.
“Turn yourself in. We’re coming for you. That’s the bottom line,” Contee said. “Our reach is far and wide and we’re coming for you.”
The reward for the shooter’s identification and arrest is now $70,000 — $25,000 apiece from each city and another $20,000 from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The two mayors were also joined by NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
“We’re sharing information because we have a perpetrator who is mobile, who has struck in at least two major United States cities,” Sewell said.
The new photo of the suspect was nabbed from a camera on an ATM machine, which officials said was taken recently, but they refused to provide anymore details about when or where the image was taken.
The imagery from the crime scenes in both cities has played a crucial role in linking the cases together, cops told reporters.
“As a result of a ton of video and camera footage that we’ve been able to review, that is, eventually, what has led us to our suspect,” Contee said.
During the press conference, officials also disclosed they believed just one gun had been used in all of the shootings — having linked ballistics between least one shooting in each city.
“We’re looking at a person who’s clearly depraved and targeting people who are vulnerable,” Bowser said.
Additionally, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig clarified that the death of a third homeless man over the weekend — feared to be the shooter’s six victim — had died from other causes.
However, officials emphasized that much remained uncertain in the investigation.
They refused to say if they had been able to capture potentially identifying information from the ATM and reiterated they were still working to discover how and when he traveled from Washington to the five boroughs.
The first attack linked to the horrific spree took place on March 3 in Washington, which was followed by two more shootings there, one of which was fatal.
It’s unclear when the gunman traveled to New York.
But nearly two weeks later, on Saturday, a security camera in SoHo caught the chilling images of the killer approaching and shooting a homeless man on King Street around 4:30 a.m., wounding the victim.
An hour later, cameras on Lafayette Street captured him kicking a homeless man wrapped in a sleeping bag, before drawing his gun and firing — an execution at point-blank range.
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