Slaying suspect called 'angry'

New York Chinatown mourns 4 homeless victims as city moves to increase outreach

A homeless man familiar with the suspect charged in the fatal bludgeoning of four homeless men in Chinatown called him "an angry person".

Randy Santos, 24, himself homeless, was charged on Sunday with four counts of murder.

He allegedly battered five homeless men around 1:30 am Saturday with a 3-foot, 15-pound metal bar in the Chatham Square area at the intersection of East Broadway and the Bowery and on nearby streets, with only one surviving.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Alfred Peterson said Santos confessed to the killings. At least one of the slayings was captured on video.

Santos, originally from the Dominican Republic, did not enter a plea and was ordered held without bail.

Omar Robinson, who has stayed in the Chatham Square area for two months, told China Daily that Santos was an unwelcome figure in the neighborhood.

"He was just alone, and he was angry — he was an angry person," said Robinson, adding that Santos would tell passersby: "You are gonna die."

Robinson said he has to sleep "with one eye open", and the homeless community is frightened, as "this can happen to anyone".

"There's a lot of homeless people here with mental issues and anger issues," he said. "It can happen any time again. Unless something is really done, it will happen again."

Robinson urged the government to address the mental health issues among the homeless.

Bob, a resident of the neighborhood for around a decade, who declined to give his last name, said: "There's no problem providing manpower to give out parking tickets, but there's a lack of security when it comes to people's mental and physical health," he said.

"It's a shame that those people with the least ability to care for themselves aren't cared for by society. I think in most cases, it's more than just a homeless problem. It's a mental health problem," said Bob, who suggested governments at all levels do more.

"It's very, very sad, but it is not surprising based on where things have gone over the last number of years," he added.

In the neighborhood where the bloody rampage took place, workers from the New York City Health Department were approaching people Monday and offering free mental health consulting services.

The city also opened a center in Chinatown on Monday to offer help.

"I think basically people are just in shock," said Meagan van Harte, senior director of the Office of Community Resilience of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told China Daily. "There is obviously media attention on it. I think people are just in their questioning phase. We want to help people express their feelings; get back to their normal routines, so there is less impact either psychologically or mentally in the long term."

Robinson, who said he had talked to one of the workers on Monday, nevertheless described the outreach as an effort to "look good" after the incident, with preventive measures still needed. 

One of the four victims was 83-year-old Chuen Kwok, who was also known as Cheun Kok, originally from Hong Kong.

Kim Mui told The New York Times on Monday that she came to mourn Kwok.

"Uncle Kwok. It's Ms. Mui. I hope you remember me," she said in Cantonese, sobbing. "I gave you the roast pork buns. I met you when I was a little girl. I'll never forget you."

Jodi Cornish, a woman who works in Lower Manhattan and who said she has visited Chinatown around six days a week for about 20 years, wiped tears at a makeshift memorial that bears a picture of Kwok, near where he slept and died.

"He is part of the fabric of Chinatown. Kok is always friendly. And also just a person that would just walk around the town and give you a nice kind of smile if you wave," said Cornish.

"He is innocent," said Tim, 58-year-old man who has lived in the neighborhood since 1977. Tim said he offered Kwok a blanket several hours before he met his tragic fate.

Police identified two other victims as Nazario A. Vazquez Villegas, 54, and Anthony L. Manson, 49. Another man, found dead at East Broadway, had not been identified as of Monday. The surviving victim, David Hernandez, 55, was in critical condition.

Tim blamed the rising homeless problem on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray, who led the ThriveNYC — a $1 billion initiative launched by de Blasio to address mental health problems of homeless people.

"I don't think he is doing anything good with the homeless here in the city," he said about de Blasio.

"What happened over the weekend shakes the conscience of who we are as New Yorkers," de Blasio said in a statement Monday. "We are sending experts to the neighborhood to provide support during this difficult time, and will continue to assess how to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future."

Tim said he has witnessed more crimes both by homeless and against them in the last year and a half.

"And I think what happened was, the mayor and his wife, they all looked the other way — his campaign and everything. And the city is actually sliding in its relationship with the homeless," he said.

"I have seen it's getting worse," Cornish said. "I have seen more homeless on the subways and streets. The people that I often bring food to told me that they were afraid of going to some shelters, because of the staff and the environment," she said.

Robinson echoed her comments on the shelters, describing them as "terrible".

The numbers of homeless in New York City vary depending on the source.

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are 79,000 homeless people in New York City, with an estimated 3,600 people living on the street.

The nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless said there were 61,6 74 homeless people in New York City in August.