Police are questioning a man who turned himself in for the fatal Monday night stabbing of a 66-year-old man in Midtown Manhattan. The suspect reportedly approached officers at the Times Square police station shortly after midnight this morning and said, "You need to arrest me. I have the knife in my coat"
Officers found two knives on him at the police station, according to multiple reports. (An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to Gothamist this morning that a man was being questioned, but would not provide additional details.)
Police say the victim, identified by the NY Post as Timothy Caughman, was involved in a dispute at West 36th Street and 9th Avenue on March 20th when he was stabbed in the chest and back. He then walked into the Midtown South Precinct, at 357 West 35th Street, just before 11:30 p.m., where he told officers he was stabbed. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital but doctors could not save him, and he was pronounced dead at 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Last night, authorities released a surveillance image and footage of a person of interest—a man with blonde hair, wearing a black coat, brown shoes and dark-colored pants. In the video, he is seen running down a street.
The man being questioned is the man seen in the video and image, NBC New York reports.
Update 12:09 p.m.: A police source now tells the Daily News that the suspect in custody is a Maryland white supremacist who told cops he came here from Baltimore for the express purpose of murdering black people. Specifically, the News's source says the suspect was motivated "by rage against black men who get romantically involved with white women."
An NYPD spokesman would not confirm or disconfirm the racial motivation, but told us a 28-year-old male suspect has been taken into custody. The spokesman said more details about the homicide would be provided at an NYPD press conference scheduled for 1 p.m. today. We'll update as more information becomes available.
