Police in New York and Washington DC are now offering a $70,000 (£53,815) reward for information on the unidentified gunman who has shot five homeless people in the two cities.
Homeless people in both cities have been told to seek shelter after a suspected serial killer killed two people and injured three in a series of shootings targeting rough sleepers over the past two weeks.
On Monday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said it and its DC counterpart had upped the total reward, posting a photo of the suspect being sought.
NYPD boss Keechant L Sewell and DC police chief Robert J Contee confirmed on Sunday that they now believe the shootings were all by the same suspect, who shot men sleeping on the street “without provocation”.
Surveillance footage showed a wiry man in black clothes and a black balaclava, wearing blue disposable gloves and holding a pistol.
New York’s recently elected mayor Eric Adams a nd DC’s Muriel Bowser pledged their support to homeless citizens. “Our communities are heartbroken and disturbed by these heinous crimes in which an individual has been targeting some of our most vulnerable residents,” they said in a joint statement.
“The work to get this individual off our streets before he hurts or murders another individual is urgent.”
Mr Adams added: “The case is a clear and horrific intentional act of taking the life of someone, it appears, because he was homeless. Two individuals were shot while sleeping on the streets – not committing a crime but sleeping on the streets.”
He said police officers and outreach teams would scour the streets to contact rough sleepers and ask them to take refuge at city-owned shelters.
However, charity groups accused Mr Adams of endangering homeless people with his new “zero tolerance” subway safety plan, which asks police to enforce rules against sleeping across seats on subway trains.
The non-profit group Vocal NY said: “The answer is permanent, safe, humane housing and care... [these killings are] the direct result of a growing reckless and hateful anti-homeless culture that has been allowed to exist by politicians and the media.”
