The first man was fatally stabbed in the abdomen as he slept on a bench in Manhattan’s West Village. The second was wounded while lying on a bench in East Midtown. The third was attacked while sleeping in a playground on the Upper East Side.
Police believe all the attacks, which took place within a week, are linked. They released photos of a man they hope to question for them on Monday night and asked for help identifying him.
The first attack was carried out on July 5. The victim, a 34-year-old man, was lying on a bench on the Hudson River Boardwalk near West 11th Street around 3 a.m. when the assailant produced a sharp object and stabbed him once in the upper abdomen, police said. The man was taken to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead.
The second victim, a 59-year-old man, was lying on a bench at Madison Avenue and East 49th Street days later, around 10 p.m. Friday, when an assailant stabbed him in the stomach, officials said. The third victim, a 28-year-old man, was lying in a park near East 96th Street and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive in the early hours of Monday morning when he was stabbed in the abdomen. Both are hospitalized in stable condition.
The mayor touted the effort as helping homeless people stay safe, but many say they feel safer on the street and that sweepers are simply chasing them from place to place and destroying their property.
As of June 1, crews had cleared the camps about 1,100 times since the effort began in late March, the city said.
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