Kills the homeless in their sleep .. $ 25,000 reward for information on a mysterious gunman
A masked gunman launched five attacks in nine days, shooting homeless people in their sleep on the streets of New York and Washington, DC.
The American police say that the method of attack is identical in all attacks, and the mayors of the two cities fear that the attacker is a "professional killer" at large.
Two of those who were attacked were killed, and another tent caught fire after he was stabbed and shot.
The authorities offered a reward for catching the killer.
The Metropolitan Police said one man was shot on March 3 and another on March 8 - both attacks occurred in the middle of the night.
Those who were attacked were wounded, but they survived.
Just a day later, emergency services responded to a fire in a tent in the city, and found a man inside, who had been fatally shot and stabbed.
In New York, a masked suspect shot a sleeping man on a street in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood in the early hours of the morning.
"The victim who was shot in the arm woke up and screamed 'What are you doing?'" New York Police Deputy Chief Hank Suttner said at a news conference.
Then the suspect ran away.
About an hour later, police said, the same person shot and killed another man who was sleeping in Soho.
"We now have a cold-blooded killer on the loose," Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a joint statement.
Adams said watching CCTV footage of the victim being shot in Manhattan was "chilling."
"The case is a clear and horrific premeditated act aimed at killing a person, apparently because he was homeless," he added.
The Metropolitan Police offered a reward of $25,000 for information leading to the arrest of the gunman, while the New York Police Department offered a reward of $10,000.
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also joined the investigation.
The NYPD is also investigating the death of another homeless man in Manhattan on Sunday night.
The cause has not been established, and it is not yet clear whether the case is linked to a series of other shootings.
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