Police in two cities are looking for a gunman they said has shot at least five homeless men, killing two of them.
The men were all sleeping outside and shot by the same person between March 3 and March 12, police said.
Each incident happened overnight with shootings in the northeast section of Washington, D.C. on March 3 and 9, and two others happening in Lower Manhattan on Saturday.
Police said the victim who was killed in Washington, D.C. was shot and stabbed multiple times and his tent was set on fire, The New York Times reported.
The last shooting confirmed to have been committed by the alleged gunman happened Saturday morning in SoHo in Manhattan. That victim was shot in the head and was killed. Another homeless man was found dead in the city but it is not yet confirmed if his death was related to the other cases, The New York Times reported.
Mayors of both New York City and Washington, D.C. called the unidentified person a “cold-blooded killer,” CNN reported.
“Our homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual preying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, according to CNN. “We will use every tool, every technique and every partner to bring the killer to justice.”
Along with police in both cities, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is part of the joint investigation and is offering a combined $55,000 for information leading to an arrest, CNN reported.
Police have not announced a motive in the cases but said that the “similarity in the modus operandi of the perpetrator, common circumstances involved in each shooting, circumstances of the victims and recovered evidence” led them to believe that the cases were related.