Police say the suspect shot one homeless man and injured another in separate street attacks on Saturday morning.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington also announced Sunday night that they are looking for the same person.
The incidents in the capital took place between March 3 and 8. One of the victims in the District of Columbia was shot and then set on fire. He later died.
There were five shootings and two murders between the two cities.
New York City police said the sleeping victim was shot in the right arm in the Soho area at about 4:30 p.m. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital and counted as stable.
According to police, a security video shows the suspect, wearing a black and black ski mask, approaching and shooting at a man in a sleeping bag about 10 blocks and 90 minutes after the first attack. Police found the victim at about 4pm on Saturday and he was pronounced dead at the scene with gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
“The case is an obvious and horrific deliberate act of taking a person’s life, it seems, because he was homeless,” Mayor Eric Adams told a news conference. “Two people were shot while sleeping on the street, not committing a crime, but sleeping on the street.”
Police also reported that another homeless man was fatally shot on Murray Street in the city’s TriBeCa neighborhood. Detectives are investigating whether the shooting was connected.
In this case, a reward of $ 10,000 is offered.
Anyone with information about the man’s identity is asked to call the New York City Police Crime Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also send their advice by visiting the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM on Twitter @NYPDTips.
Currently, teams are also appealing to the homeless in Newark, New Jersey to warn them about the shooter.
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