Brian Dowling is the suspect accused in the stabbing death of New York City activist Ryan Carson, according to CBS New York.
The murder, which occurred on a city sidewalk, was captured in a viral video. You can watch it below but beware that it’s very disturbing. The attack occurred around 4 a.m. on Monday, October 2, 2023, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, according to NBC News.
Dowling is 18 years old and from Brooklyn, New York, CBS reported. Dowling has been charged with murder and weapon possession, according to The New York Daily News.
Carson worked for the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group, according to NBC.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Viral Video Shows the Suspect, Who Police Say Is Brian Dowling, Fatally Stabbing Ryan Carson
#WATCH | NY Post obtains and releases video showing Leftist activist Ryan Carson stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend on NYC street late-night. 🚨
The video shows Carson and his girlfriend sitting on a bench when a man police say is Dowling starts kicking over scooters.
Carson approaches him and the suspect says, “What are you looking at?” Carson told him to “chill.”
“Mr. Carson begins to immediately try to de-escalate the situation,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said, according to CBS.
The suspect swung at Carson with a knife and then stabbed him multiple times when Carson tripped and fell, the video shows.
“As Mr. Carson lay dying on the sidewalk, the male with the knife kicks him in the chest, threatens to stab the woman companion and spits in her face,” Kenny said, according to CBS.
Carson’s X page is now privatized. “Brooklyn Poet&Campaign Organizer. Art School Jock. Waste Policy at @nypirg. Walked NYC to Buffalo w/ @noodnycampaign. Harm Reduction. Hoops. Baseball. Climate,” it reads.
2. Police Were Previously Called to an Incident in Which Brian Dowling Was Accused of Smashing Items in His Girlfriend’s Apartment
The New York Post reported that Dowling “works at a high school in Clinton Hill and is known to frequent the area of Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene.”
The Post noted: “He was issued three summonses in 2022, two of them for disorderly conduct, and was the victim of a robbery in 2021.”
In addition, The Post reported that, two months ago, his aunt told police Dowling “whom she described as mentally disturbed — had become irate and smashed items in his girlfriend’s apartment after a fight.” Police did not arrest him at that time.
3. New York Police Found ‘Multiple Knives’ in Brian Dowling’s Apartment Near the Crime Scene, Reports Say
Brian Dowling, arrested for murder of Ryan Carson
Photo @DailyMail
According to the New York Daily News, Dowling lives “just down the block from the scene” of the attack, which occurred when Carson and his girlfriend were returning home from a wedding.
Daily News reported that police searched Dowling’s apartment on Lafayette Avenue and recovered the sweatshirt he was wearing in the video as well as multiple knives.
It’s not clear whether any of the knives is the murder weapon, however, Daily News reported, adding that Dowling sobbed as he was brought into court on October 5, 2023.
4. Ryan Carson’s Friends Described His ‘Radical Principles of Community Care, Justice’ & Started a GoFundMePage to Help Working Class People Take ‘Time Off of Work to Mourn’
Photos:Brian Dowling, the suspect in the murder of activist Ryan Carson, is escorted by detectives from the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn on Oct. 5, 2023. #LloydMitchellPhotography #NYPD #RyanCarson #Photojournalism #AMNewYork #Journalism #Crime #BedfordStuyvesant #Brooklyn
Ryan Carson’s friends created a GoFundMe page so they could take time off work to mourn.
“We are a collective of Ryan’s close friends, reeling from a brutal loss. We are asking for your help on behalf of his partner in easing the burden and stress of this horrifying situation so that we can have space and time to grieve, and remember Ryan. Immediate needs are to offset the costs of working class people taking time off of work to properly mourn,” the page says.
It continues:
If you Google ‘Ryan Carson’, you’ll hear (and now see) about the tragedy that struck on early Monday morning. But if you look past the breaking news, you’ll see news on his legislative victories, you’ll probably find his social media accounts filled with thoughts and memories, and you’ll find collections of his artistic works to date. We hope you may find his thoughts on mutual aid, his works of advocacy, and understand that his radical principles of community care, justice, and dismantling an individualized profit-centered way of life are worth carrying forward in our own communities.
It is this time of remembrance and healing that will allow for reflection; we thank you in advance for any material support you can provide.
Tonks and the Aurors wrote on Facebook that Carson’s girlfriend is Claudia Morales, “Wizard Rock folks, please mobilize support around the fandom’s finest representative, Claudia Morales. You may have met Claudia at a con, selling merch at one of my shows, or maybe selling her Snitchwitch zines. Claudia lost her partner in a tragic way this week, and if you’re looking to show her and his loved ones support, we’re centralizing it here.”
Morales has set her social media accounts to private.
5. Ryan Carson Was Described as a Person ‘Who Worked Piously to Help Make This City a Better Place’
The 18-year-old man suspected in the grisly random [this helps explain what is meant by “random” in crime reports] stabbing death of Ryan Carson, 32, in Bedford-Stuyvesant was taken into custody this morning.
The person of interest, identified as Brian Dowling, was nabbed when…
The New York Post spoke to Carson’s friends, who described his social justice activism.
“It’s a horrific, brutal murder of someone who worked piously to help make this city a better place,” Carson’s roommate Tom Krantz, 31, told The Post.
“He’s really . . . like the epicenter of an entire community that he created, that he brought together,” Krantz told the Post.
“I don’t think anyone is exaggerating when they say he would give the shirt off his back,” his roommate said. “He was the guy that bent over backward time and time again to be there with his friends.”
According to the Post, Carson was from the Boston, Massachusetts, and had lived in New York since 2010.
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