New York Homeless Attacker Rudy Santos Charged With Four Counts of Murder

A suspect has been charged in the homeless murder rampage in New York City’s Chinatown over the weekend. Rudy Rodriguez Santos, 24, was arrested and charged with four counts of murder, one count attempted murder, and marijuana possession, according to a police statement released Sunday.

The suspect was found carrying a metal pipe shortly after the attacks, and was arrested without incident, according to police. Santos, himself homeless, allegedly bludgeoned four homeless men to death with a three-foot-long metal pipe while they were sleeping outside on East Broadway in the Chinatown neighborhood.

All four men were pronounced dead on the scene. Santos also allegedly attacked a fifth sleeping homeless man, but he was able to get away with his life and describe his attacker. The sole survivor of the rampage is now in critical condition at Cornell Hospital, according to the NYPD. “The motive appears to be, right now, just random attacks,” said Michael Baldassano, chief of Manhattan South Detectives. “No one was targeted by race, age, anything of that nature.”