Brian Dowling, 18 year old arrested in murder of Ryan Carson Brooklyn social justice activist stabbed to death at Bedford Stuyvesant earlier this week. Suspect has been summonsed for emotional and mental issues.
Police have arrested an 18 year old man allegedly captured on video stabbing a Brooklyn social justice activist earlier this week. The teen’s arrest comes as cops recovered a knife and the sweatshirt the perp is believed to have worn during the early-morning slaying, law enforcement sources said.
Brian Dowling, was taken into custody Thursday morning, when NYPD officers executed a search warrant at a home on Lafayette Avenue near Malcolm X Boulevard — just down the block from where Ryan Carson, 32, was knifed to death early Monday as his girlfriend watched.
Cops were searching for clothing allegedly worn by the suspect during the caught-on-camera attack — and found both Dowling and his dark Champion sweatshirt, seen in the video of the attack, inside the apartment, sources said according to the nypost.
Second degree murder & other charges
Cops also found a knife in the apartment, and will be working to determine if it was the murder weapon.
Dowling is expected to face charges of second-degree murder and criminal weapons possession.
‘Assailant has been caught,’ Carson’s father, Ken Carson, wrote on Facebook at 11:30 Thursday morning.
‘More details will follow,’ he added in a follow-up comment.
‘I’m on the road…escorting Ryan Home to Massachusetts right now. I wasn’t leaving NYC without him.’
Friday, Oct. 6 would have been Carson’s 32nd birthday.
“He had a big brain, but he had a really big heart.” Friends remember Ryan Carson, the Brooklyn activist stabbed to death on the street this week.
The NYPD released photos of persons of interest they’re searching for in the investigation. https://t.co/6zYUacrUxK@CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/8RdcKpTSLQ
— Ali Bauman (@AliBaumanTV) October 5, 2023
‘I’ll kill you!’
Law enforcement sources previously identified a ‘mentally disturbed’ teen as the main person of interest in the murder of Carson, who was attacked near at a B38 bus stop in Bedford Stuyvesant just before 4 a.m. Monday.
The longtime campaign organizer for the New York Public Interest Research Group and his girlfriend were heading home from a wedding on Long Island when the ‘random attack’ occurred, police said.
The attack followed Carson and his girlfriend walking in the same direction that the 18 year old had moments passed them while waiting at a bus stop. Dowling is seen a few feet ahead suddenly knocking scooters, only to then turn and curse Carson who responds to the unhinged man’s actions during the dead of night, in the seedy area.
The unhinged man can be heard yelling, ‘I’ll kill you!’ before the two scuffle, with Carson eventually tumbling over the bus stop bench while the attacker pulls out a knife and stabs him three times, according to cops and the video.
Carson lay crumpled on the ground when the assailant turned on his girlfriend and spat on her.
An unknown woman — who police said knows the suspect — then appears in the corner of the frame and seems to beg the knife-wielding man to not ‘hurt him’ and repeats what sounds like ‘Brian.’
Carson died from a stab wound that pierced his heart, officials said.
Prior summonses and emotional/mental issues
By Wednesday, police said they had identified the alleged perpetrator but were waiting for ‘probable cause to make this arrest,’ NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said during a press conference.
Dowling was issued three summonses in 2022 — including two for disorderly conduct — and was a robbery victim in 2021, sources said.
He was also cited in an incident report related to a July incident in which his aunt claimed he smashed objects in his girlfriend’s apartment following a fight, and described him in a 911 call as mentally disturbed, sources said.
Police said the alleged attacker may have been fighting with his girlfriend shortly before he made his way along the street early Monday morning.
Sources said the teen works at a high school in Clinton Hill and is known to frequent the area of Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene.
It is unclear if he had a juvenile record, which would be sealed.
