Abdoulaye Coulibaly, a Black/African American man, was found deceased in his sleeping bag on a Manhattan street on the morning of March 12, 2022. For much of that winter day, he lay unnoticed by the scores of people who walked past him. It was nearly twelve hours after an assailant had approached him at dawn and fatally shot him. His death was part of a string of violent attacks against homeless men in both New York City and Washington, D.C., sparking fears of a serial killer targeting the
vulnerable.
The investigation into these brutal and seemingly random acts of violence led authorities to identify a single suspect, 30-year-old Gerald Brevard. A resident of Washington, D.C., Brevard was apprehended in his home city on March 15, 2022, following an intense manhunt by a joint task force of law enforcement agencies. Ballistics evidence from the various crime scenes was instrumental in linking the shootings. At the time of his arrest, Brevard was charged in Washington, D.C. with first-degree murder for the death of another homeless man, Morgan Holmes, who was shot and stabbed in his tent. Subsequent indictments in D.C. included hate crime charges, alleging that Brevard had targeted his victims based on their homeless status.
While Gerald Brevard was named as the primary suspect in the murder of Abdoulaye Coulibaly, and although authorities in New York expressed their intention to file charges, the legal proceedings have been centered in Washington, D.C. Court proceedings in D.C. found Brevard mentally competent to stand trial for the charges he faces there. However, as of the latest available information, formal charges in New York for the death of Abdoulaye Coulibaly had not been announced, with the investigation in Manhattan described as ongoing.
Abdoulaye Coulibaly's family, who had tried for years to encourage him to return to their home in Ohio, were devastated by the news of his violent death. They were unaware that he had been living on the streets. His death, and the violent spree that led to it, brought a renewed focus on the precarious and often dangerous lives of the homeless population in major American cities. The community, including those who had offered him services at local shelters, mourned his loss and honored his memory.
