Robert Contee
Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee holds a photo of a suspect in the search for a gunman that has been targeting homeless men sleeping on the streets of Washington, and New York City, Monday, March 14, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By Ashraf Khalil and Bobby Caina Calvan, AP

A man suspected of stalking and shooting homeless people asleep on the streets of New York City and Washington, D.C., was arrested early Tuesday. Police said at least two people were killed and three others wounded in the attacks.

Law enforcement arrested the man in Washington, the Metropolitan Police Department said on Twitter after news of the killings had added new fears to people spending nights on the streets of the two cities and elsewhere.

The man was identified as 30-year-old Gerald Brevard, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. Brevard, who lives in the Washington area, has a criminal history that includes an assault arrest, the officials said. He was in custody Tuesday. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and both spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

Police in the two cities earlier released multiple surveillance photographs, including a closeup showing the suspect’s face, and urged people who might know him to come forward. A tipster called police with information about his identity, officials said.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams credited the swift coordination between the two police departments and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF agents took Brevard into custody before handing him over to the MPD, according to the ATF’s Twitter feed.

“We said that the work to remove this man from our streets was urgent, and our communities responded,” Bowser said in a joint statement with Adams on Tuesday. “We know that this experience has been especially scary for our residents experiencing homelessness. Our work continues to end homelessness and ensure all residents have access to safe and affordable housing.”

Bowser and Adams held a joint news conference Monday evening to appeal for public assistance in identifying the attacker.

“This man targeted those experiencing homelessness with no regard for life, but this criminal is now off the streets,” Adams said Tuesday. “Gun violence against anyone, let alone our most vulnerable populations, is sick, but thanks to the coordination between different levels of law enforcement and the public’s help, those experiencing homelessness can breathe a sigh of relief today.”

Court records show Brevard was arrested in July 2018 on assault charges and later pleaded guilty to attempted assault with a deadly weapon. He was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in June 2019. Records show Brevard was sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital, a psychiatric facility in the District. A month later, he was deemed competent to stand trial. Soon after, records show, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. That sentence, however, was suspended.

Investigators also are trying to determine why Brevard was out on the streets around 2:30 a.m., when he was arrested.

Advocates for the homeless found comfort in the arrest but urged officials in both cities, which have significant populations of people without permanent shelter, to provide more assistance.

“The urgency of helping people move in off the streets must remain, because this is only the latest example of the risks faced by people without housing,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City. “It’s not the first time that people have been the victims of violence or even homicides because of their housing status.”

Investigators in the two cities began to suspect a link between the shootings on Sunday after a Metropolitan Police Department homicide captain, a former New York City resident, saw surveillance photos that had been released on Saturday night by the New York Police Department while scrolling through social media.

These images taken from surveillance video and provided by the New York Police Department show a man suspected of shooting two homeless people on Saturday, March 12, 2022 in New York. A search is underway for the gunman who has been stalking and shooting homeless men sleeping on the streets of Washington, D.C., and New York City. Authorities say the gunman killed two people and wounded three more in less than two weeks. (New York Police Department via AP)

The man in those photos looked similar to the one being sought by the MPD homicide captain’s own department.

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee credited the coordination between the departments for the timely arrest.

The earliest known shooting happened at around 4 a.m. on March 3 in Washington, police said, when a man was wounded in the city’s Northeast section. A second man was wounded on March 8, just before 1:30 a.m.

At 3 a.m. the next day, police and firefighters found a dead man inside a burning tent. He initially was thought to have suffered fatal burns, but an autopsy revealed he had died of multiple stab and gunshot wounds.

The killer then traveled north to New York City, police said.

At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, a 38-year-old man sleeping on the street in Manhattan not far from the entrance to the Holland Tunnel was shot in his right arm as he slept. The victim screamed, and the gunman fled, police said.

About 90 minutes later, the gunman fatally shot another man in SoHo, police said.

“He looked around,” Adams said. “He made sure no one was there. And he intentionally took the life of an innocent person.”

The man’s body was found in his sleeping bag just before 5 p.m. Saturday. He had been shot in the head and neck, said Julie Bolcer, a spokesperson for the New York City medical examiner’s office.

The victim had lain in the street for hours before authorities were summoned.

Kess Abraham, who became homeless last month, said he was “pained” to learn of “a guy who lived on the streets who probably was minding his own business getting murdered for no reason.”

It could have been “any one of us who’s homeless,” Abraham said.

 

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56 COMMENTS

  1. Bowser and Adams pattin each other on the back cuz they took ONE miscreant off the street!? Supposed to divert everyone’s attention from the hundreds of other violent crimes that don’t make the evening news!!

    • RE: “Gun violence against anyone, let alone our most vulnerable populations, is sick,”

      Rest assured the street level homeless are much more worried about fists, feet, bottles, bricks pipes, knives and the cold than they care about getting shot. Besides…Violence is Violence.

      • fists, feet, bottles, bricks pipes, knives and the cold can’t reach the ones behind all this. but guns can. so that’s what they focus on.

    • Oh thank god! We can’t have these killers reducing the homeless population. The homeless are very important to us. Wish the homeless population was greater than what it is, that is how important it is to me, personally. The homeless deserve our sympathy, and cash. What we really need, is to issue “homeless kits” which consist of tents, diapers, a portable shower, a portable toilet, a 30 pack of disposable needles, a glass crack pipe, a glass meth pipe, some energy bars, a sleeping bag, a handgun with two extra mags, a camper’s pillow, and no trash bags. And taxpayers need to do their part, and subsidize. If we could make the whole country just like these people, that would be ideal.

      • Leftist douchebags ensured 30 years ago that mentally incompetent couldn’t be institutionalized any longer. That was ‘cruel’, you see. Now they’re all ‘free’. Free to freeze & starve to death on the streets, smoke fentanyl & crap in dacian’s pot garden.

      • Wouldn’t it be easier if they just moved into the basement with you. Between your mom’s Teamster pension and whatever government dole you’re on I’m sure you’ll all be comfortable.

  3. All that effort…
    Why? To look like they are ‘doing something’?

    He will be released to continue his killing spree. Even if by some chance he gets convicted, he will still be released to kill again.

    • Good question. I’m wondering if the fact that the crimes took place across state lines (New York and D.C.) and involved a firearm makes it a federal case?

      • if it’s across state lines, then yes.

        but observe how they knew that from the beginning ….

        • Not so fast runt. From what I’ve seen these are simple homicides. No reason for them to go federal. No bank robberies, RICO, Native American reservations, etc. involved that I can see. Yeah he crossed state lines, but I thought federal jurisdiction only kicked in if it was interstate flight to avoid prosecution. Looks like he crossed state lines to hunt. Not run. Maybe I’m mistaken.

  6. Heavy (dot) com has a fair amount of background on this dude. Arrest record going back to 2010 in Maryland, suspected in multiple assaults (including one of the r-word variety) against women, etc. ad infinitum.

    The guy needs to be taken off the streets for good. He’s proven multiple times that he cannot be part of civil society. Lock him up for life.

    • Can’t do that. He is a victim of this racist society, going back to 1619 B.C. He needs treatment. Reparations would help, too. And, definitely, college. He should not have any problem getting into Harvard, based on life experiences.

    • “Soon after, records show, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. That sentence, however, was suspended.”

      Yet his sentence was suspended. Why doesn’t the media report on the clown(s) that set him free?

  7. Proof once more that all the 23,000 gun control laws DO NOT WORK. Else how could this man, previosuly arrested for felony assault, and assault with a deadly weapon, and, it would seem, possession of a concealed handgun in public in DC without having o first obtained the requsite Mother May I Card… and I’ll also lay high stakes at long odds he did NOT pruchase that handgun through an FFL with BackGround Check, which process ssures no “prohibited person can ever in any way by any means ever come into possession of a firearm ever nohow not at all….. (yeah, right…..) Futher, if he is indeed the NY homelss victimmurderer, he was also carrying that concealed handgun in contravention of New Your State and City laws prohibiting such possession and carryinig concealed, not to mention the killer’s “prohibited person” status from his DC arrests also renders him “prohibited in New York State and City.
    Meanwhile, people like me, who HAVE the Mother May I Card, a perfect record, etc, have to pay for any new gun purchases then have the FFL dealer for ten days. (I am too dangerous to be allowd to even borrow a friend’s gun at his place just to fire a few rounds to see what that gun is like)

    That’s the “logical” solution, right? Impose more and more restrictions on guys like me, but do nothing torpevent guys like him getting and using guns to kill….. makes perfect sense to me… NOTTTT!!!!

  8. Just how certain are they, that they have the right man? And, also, how certain are they that it’s the same guy in both cities?

    Allow me to be skeptical here. There may be another series of shootings in the near future, because the authorities are simply full of crap.

  10. I hate to say it but I have been expecting more of this. As people get more fed up with the growing number of “homeless” people they are going to start taking action. Wghat would you do if someone was shooting up, leaving needles laying aorund, shitting in the street and on the sidewalk, all in front of your house or nearby in your neighborhood?

    As always the low hanging fruit and loose nuts will go first.

    • Wghat (sic) would you do if someone was shooting up, leaving needles laying aorund, shitting in the street and on the sidewalk, all in front of your house or nearby in your neighborhood?
      I’d sell my house for $5M and move out of LA, SF, NYC, or Seattle.

        • This is a real issue. In Brazil they caught Police exterminating homeless with alcohol fires.
          In India there are also atrocities.
          Meanwhile the Sacklers, who alone did a huge part of this, are billionaires.

      • Word. I live in the bay area. Working class neighborhood. Nothing special. A neighbors house just sold for 1.7 million. That kind of cheddar will get you a nice place out of CA.

  11. Assuming that this entire investigation and arrest are legitimate, I am glad to see our government serve justice.

    Scary thought:
    It would be exceedingly easy for the Ruling Class to produce low-resolution and grainy photos or videos of a masked person murdering a homeless person in a sleeping bag–and then claim that John Doe (a political enemy) perpetrated the crime. Look how fast they “got their man”.

  12. I mentioned this case to a friend last evening. He said, “So. The homeless are a blight on our society.” I said, “Yeah, but if going to shoot those guys in their sleep, I have a much better list.”

  14. All those cameras on all those streets. Big Brother was watching. Didn’t do shit to stop the crimes. But he was watching.

    Once again, folks. Your safety is up to you. No one else.

    • As we now know, Big Brother was collecting drone footage in Kenosha. What other riots did they film, and what did they do with the footage?

  17. Given his race he can’t be guilty of supremacy or a hate crime so it’ll have to be the gun’s fault. And by extension all of us responsible and law abiding types that somehow or other made this happen.

  18. “Our work continues to end homelessness and ensure all residents have access to safe and affordable housing.”

    That’s why they’re homeless?? How is it that other people have “access” to housing? What’s the difference, and what are you doing to “end” it? I call BS on that.

  22. I hope they got the right person for this. While many homeless are addicts or have mental health issues, those are not capitol offenses. Unfortunately, only about 25% of those out on the streets will even try to help themselves and do whatever it takes to rebuild their lives and get off the streets. We can offer help, but many of those out there will either refuse the help, or just waste the chance and go right back to using/abusing/ or walk away from their opportunity for a life away from the streets. I can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves. Nor can the government or private charities.
    We might get lucky, and this murderer will finally be removed from society for good. But, I somehow doubt it. Of course, if it was the ” Angry White Conservative Man” he would never have made it to jail.

  24. How do NYC and DC manage to find replacement mayor each dumber and more incompetent than the previous.

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