Abdoulaye Coulibaly, a Black/African American man, was found dead in his sleeping bag on a Manhattan street on the morning of March 12, 2022. He had been shot at dawn and lay there for nearly twelve hours before being discovered. His killing was reported as part of a string of violent attacks against homeless men in New York City and Washington, D.C., which raised fears of a serial attacker targeting vulnerable people.

Authorities identified a single suspect, 30-year-old Gerald Brevard of Washington, D.C., who was arrested in his home city on March 15, 2022. Ballistics linked multiple crime scenes. Brevard was charged in Washington, D.C., with first-degree murder in the death of another homeless man, Morgan Holmes, and indictments in D.C. included hate crime allegations related to targeting victims because they were homeless. New York authorities said they intended to file charges in Coulibaly’s death, but no formal New York charges had been announced and the Manhattan investigation was described as ongoing.

Coulibaly’s family, who had tried for years to persuade him to return to Ohio, said they did not know he had been living on the streets. The community and local service providers mourned him and recalled the dangers faced by people experiencing homelessness. Did anyone have contact with Abdoulaye in Manhattan in the days before March 12, 2022?