NYPD asks for help identifying man wanted for stabbing homeless New Yorkers in their sleep

• The NYPD is looking for a man they believe stabbed three homeless men over the last week.
• One of the victims died from his injuries.

The NYPD is asking for the public's help in identifying a man they believe has, in separate incidents, stabbed three homeless New Yorkers while they were sleeping in the last week.

The man is targeting the unhoused and remains a danger, the NYPD said at a news conference Tuesday.

"These are senseless acts on defenseless people experiencing homelessness and somebody knows this person," NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said. "We need to get this killer off our streets as quickly and as safely as possibly."

The men woke up feeling what was described as a "gut punch" or "kick in the stomach," NYPD Chief James Essig said.

The first stabbing took place at 3:10 a.m. last Tuesday at West and Christopher streets in the West Village, where a 34-year-old man awoke to pain in his stomach and was taken to the hospital, where he died, Essig said.

A video from the area shows a man dressed in black and in a hoodie emblazoned with the words "Innocence Project" approach the victim while he slept before riding his Citi Bike around the block and returning to stab the him, Essig said.

On Friday at 10 p.m., another man, 59, was stabbed while sleeping on Madison Avenue and East 49th Street, Essig said. A man dressed in black with neon sneakers was seen on video watching the victim sleep for a half hour before stabbing him, according to Essig.

On Saturday at 3:30 a.m., a man wearing the same "Innocence Project" sweatshirt, black pants, and neon sneakers stabbed another victim who was sleeping on the basketball court at the Stanley Issacs Playground between East 95th and East 97th Streets on the FDR Drive, Essig said.

The suspect may take the subway to get around, police said.

"He is armed and dangerous," Essig said.

Targeting the vulnerable

This isn't the first time homeless New Yorkers have recently been targeted in violent attacks.

In March, a 30-year-old man was arrested following a multi-state manhunt on charges he was involved in the shootings of five homeless men in New York City and Washington, DC. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Frank James, the man accused of opening fire in April on a Manhattan-bound N-train in Brooklyn, posted hateful screeds to social media against homeless people who ride the New York subway.

"Every car I went to wa[s] loaded with homeless people. It was so bad, I couldn't even stand," James said of the subway in a Youtube video that has since been removed.

After rambling on about the situation, which be blamed on New York Mayor Eric Adams, James said: "And so the message to me is: I should have gotten a gun, and just started shooting motherf---ers."

James faces federal charges stemming from the shooting and is awaiting trial.

Sewell told reporters Tuesday that city outreach workers have been meeting with unhoused people, alerting them to the danger and urging them to take shelter indoors.

Police are asking those with information about the assaults to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS and to call 911 if they identify the suspect on the street.