By Randi Love
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A suspect in the stabbings of three homeless men, one of whom died, has been taken into custody by the New York City Police Department, authorities said on Wednesday.
Trayvon Murphy, a 40-year-old homeless man, was brought in as a person of interest on Wednesday morning and then placed under arrest in connection with the stabbings, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a briefing. A NYPD spokesperson declined to clarify the spelling of the suspect’s name.
Murphy was spotted near a park in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, where a witness called the police after identifying him based on clothing the attacker was seen wearing during one of the attacks. When Murphy was taken into custody, police officials said he had a knife in his pocket.
The stabbings took place over a seven-day period ending July 11 in different areas of the borough of Manhattan.
The first victim, a 34-year-old man, was sleep on a bench on July 5 before being awakened by a sharp pain to his stomach, police officials said. He was transported to the hospital where he later died.
The two other victims – a 59-year-old man stabbed on July 8 while lying on a park bench and a 28-year-old man stabbed while lying on the ground in a park playground – were in stable condition after their separate attacks.
None of the victims have been identified.
Police said the motivation for the attacks remains unknown. Murphy was previously convicted in Tennessee on a narcotics charge and was wanted on a probation violation.
Officials said Murphy also attacked a roommate in a homeless shelter in the Queens borough of New York City in April while the man was asleep. Murphy is due in court on July 22 in connection with that case.
“I don’t think this dangerous person is a reflection of New York,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a briefing. “Sometimes we look at the worst among us and define them as our city. The average New Yorker gives the homeless the helping hand. They do not use their hands to assault them.”
When Adams was elected in November 2021, he promised to reduce crime, but statistics show a 37.8% increase in overall crime, which has risen in New York and other U.S. cities since the pandemic began.
This is the second case involving attacks on homeless people in New York City this year. In March, Gerald Brevard III, 30, was arrested in Washington, D.C., after allegedly shooting five victims, two in New York.
(Reporting by Randi Love in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis)
