Suspect held in fatal bludgeoning of sleeping homeless men
NEW YORK (AP) — A homeless man wielding a long metal bar rampaged through New York City's Chinatown early Saturday attacking other homeless people who were sleeping, killing four and leaving a fifth with serious injuries, police said.
Police recovered the weapon, which was still in the suspect's hands when he was arrested, officials said.
"The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks," Chief of Manhattan South Detectives Michael Baldassano said, adding there was no evidence yet that the victims were "targeted by race, age, anything of that nature."
Randy Rodriguez Santos was taken into police custody early Saturday. Police say he has been arrested at least a half-dozen other times in the past two years, three times on assault charges.
Santos was escorted out of a police station late Saturday by two police officers and put in a car. Detectives at the scene told journalists he was being taken to a hospital for the gathering of DNA evidence.
An arraignment was expected Sunday morning. It wasn't clear whether Santos had a lawyer yet who could speak for him.
The victims, all men, were attacked as they slept in doorways and sidewalks in three different locations in Chinatown, which is packed during daylight hours but empties out at night.
Police responded to a 911 call just before 2 a.m. as one assault was in progress. They found one man dead in the street and a second with critical head injuries.
A search of the neighborhood turned up three additional bodies.
The New York Post published photos of two of the victims under white sheets, one slumped in a blood-spattered doorway, the other on the sidewalk. The identities of the victims have not been released.
Two of the men were killed on The Bowery, which cuts through the heart of Chinatown and has for decades...