Suspect in Fatal Attacks on Homeless in D.C., NYC Named: ‘We Got Our Man’

The intense manhunt to find the man suspected of shooting five homeless men, two fatally, has been identified.

“I am here to announce that we got our man,” Washington D.C. Metro Police Department Chief Robert Contee said during a press conference on Tuesday. “At approximately 2:30 a.m., 30-year-old Gerald Brevard of Southeast D.C. was taken into custody.”

The press conference came just hours after the D.C. police announced on social media that they had arrested a man believed to have shot five homeless men in D.C. and New York City.

Newsweek reported on the development:

During the press conference on Tuesday, Contee said that Brevard had a previous criminal history, with charges in Washington D.C. in 2016 and 2018. Following the most recent arrest on Tuesday, Brevard was charged with first-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to kill.

According to the Associated Press, in 2018, Brevard was arrested in D.C. and pleaded guilty to attempted assault with a deadly weapon. Court records obtained by the AP showed that Brevard was sent to a psychiatric hospital after he was found to be mentally unstable. In 2019, he was deemed fit to stand trial and pleaded guilty to the charges, resulting in a year in prison.

“You’re shocked that someone can commit such a jarring act against a defenseless person,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said after the arrest in Daily News report. “Just going up and shooting somebody sleeping, defenseless on the sidewalk … (he) has some serious issues.”

The Daily News reported on the man’s father:

The suspect’s father, also named Gerald, issued a statement describing his namesake son as “a good person” who suffers from untreated mental illness.

“I cannot speak to the details of the case,” he told the Daily News in a text message. ‘I can only speak to the issue of the failure of the judicial system identifying that my son suffers from mental illness, but not treating him … The system has failed regarding the treatment of so many, including my son.”

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