Culture War Ignites After Brooklyn Poet Stabbed to Death in Bedford-Stuyvesant
Graphic, disturbing surveillance footage emerged of a Brooklyn poet being stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend as the two made their way home from a wedding on Long Island in what appears to be a random attack in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.
A wanted poster circulated with a picture of the suspect in a Champion sweatshirt, and according to prosecutors, multiple people identified the man from the surveillance video as Brian Dowling, an 18-year-old from Brooklyn.
Sources said that Dowling was also cited in a July incident in which he smashed up his girlfriend’s apartment after a fight, after which his aunt described him as mentally disturbed in a 911 call.
Investigators said they do not believe the suspect knew Carson or his girlfriend, Claudia Morales. The stabbing happened on the same block in Brooklyn as Dowling's home is located, where investigators said they recovered a possible murder weapon, which reportedly the suspect initially tossed in a pile of trash right after the stabbing before thinking better of it, and immediately retrieving it.
Police also said they recovered a dark blue Champion sweatshirt that appears to be the same as the one seen in the surveillance video. Dowling was taken into custody and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
According to police, the horrifying surveillance video, which can be seen in its original and unedited form below, shows Ryan Carson with Morales sitting at the B38 bus stop in Bedford-Stuyvesant when the suspect walks by them with his hood pulled up over his head and his hands in his pockets around 4:00 a.m. on the morning of Monday, October 2nd, 2023.
A few seconds after he passes the couple, Carson and Morales stand up and proceed in the same direction as the man identified as Dowling, who stops suddenly, violently kicking over scooters parked on the corner and stomping on them. Police said he may have been fighting with a woman identified as his twin sister, Brianna, just before this.
Carson, wearing a light gray suit, and Morales, dressed in a sleeveless blue gown, immediately come to a halt. Suddenly, the suspect begins to advance on the couple, screaming, “What the fuck are you looking at?”
Carson replies that he wasn’t looking at anything, as he steps protectively in between Morales and the unhinged, irate stranger. “I’ll kill you!” the man screams, threateningly, as Carson pleads with him to “Chill! Chill!” holding up his hands non-threateningly, trying desperately to back away.
The attacker chases after Carson, appearing to slash the victim’s face with a knife concealed in his hand, as the victim’s girlfriend, behind them, pleads, “Please, please, please!”
With what appears to be blood on the side of his face, Carson turns to run, but as he turns, falls over the very bench he had been sitting on just moments earlier.
The psychotic stranger then grabs Carson’s jacket lapel, and stabs him multiple times from above as Morales catches up to them, too late to help and appearing not to realize the gravity of the situation. One of the stab wounds had pierced his heart.
He turns away with Carson curled up, dying on the ground before coming back to threaten Carson’s terrified girlfriend, who raises her hand like a paper shield only to have him spit on her while still clutching the knife, then kicking Carson’s already mortally wounded body before leaving frame for good.
