18-year-old suspect in custody over random knife slaying of NYC activist

Suspect was taken into custody just down the block from where Ryan Carson, 32, was knifed to death early Monday as his girlfriend watched

Brian Dowling, was arrested by officers executing a search warrant at a home on Lafayette Avenue near Malcolm X Boulevard

Police recovered the clothing allegedly worn by the suspect during the caught-on-camera attack, inside apt where Dowling was arrested

A knife was recovered from the apt, but it’s yet be established that it is the murder weapon

Dowling is expected to face charges of second-degree murder and criminal weapons possession

18-year-old suspect Brian Dowling, was arrested at a home a block from where Ryan Carson, 32, was knifed to death early Monday as his girlfriend watched

The 18-year-old man suspected in the mindless random stabbing death of a 32-year-old Brooklyn social justice activist was taken into custody Thursday morning as cops recovered a knife and the sweatshirt the killer is believed to have worn during the early-morning slaying.
The person of interest, identified as Brian Dowling, was nabbed when NYPD officers executed a search warrant at a home on Lafayette Avenue near Malcolm X Boulevard, a block from the scene where Ryan Carson was knifed to death early Monday as his girlfriend Claudia Morales, watched.

NYPD detectives outside the home on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn on Thursday morning where the suspect Brian Dowling was arrested

Ryan Carson [in suit], was knifed to death in cold blood by an unknown man on a street in Brooklyn in the early hours of Monday morning. He was on his way back from a wedding with his girlfriend

Carson, 32, was stabbed in the chest multiple times, and the blade pierced his heart, during the unprovoked attack at 4am near Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard in Brooklyn. 
Dressed in a suit, Carson was returning home from a wedding with his girlfriend Claudia Morales, who hours earlier posted an image of them smiling together at the nuptials hours. 
Police say the 18-year-old suspect is being sought in the stabbing. Police believe he works at a school in the Clinton Hill neighborhood.
The suspect was identified as “Brian” by a mystery woman who arrived immediately after the fatal stabbing, according to detectives, who determined that connection via surveillance video and witness interviews.

Ryan Carson, [photo], was stabbed in the chest at around 4am at a bus stop, about a mile away at Lafayette Avenue and Malcom X Boulevard in Brooklyn, NY. He was returning home after attending a wedding with his girlfriend

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, the sources said.
Cops also found a knife in the apartment, and will be working to determine if it was the murder weapon, sources said.
Dowling is expected to face charges of second-degree murder and criminal weapons possession, the sources confirmed.
“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, records indicated.

Ryan Carson was returning home from a wedding with his girlfriend Claudia Morales who posted an image of them smiling together at the Long Island event just hours before the tragedy

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 senseless attack occurred, police said.
The assailant seemed to target Carson at random, forcing the community advocate to stand between the stranger and his girlfriend, the troubling surveillance footage showed.

Ryan Carson and Claudia Morales sitting at bus stop in Brooklyn, NY, before Brian Dowling attacked the pair around 4am on Monday morning

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.

The suspect Brian Dowling, was kicking garbage cans before turning around and yelling at Carson. The suspect next chases Carson down with a knife in the random and brutal attack in Brooklyn early Monday

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 conduc, and was a robbery victim in 2021, sources said.

Brian Dowling faces off with Claudia after stabbing and mortally wounding her boyfriend Ryan Carson [seen lying on the ground]. He spat in her face before leaving

Carson’s girlfriend Claudia Morales kneels over him before first responders arrive

A woman believed to be connected to the suspect apologized to the couple

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 began kicking over and damaging mopeds and scooters that were parked on the sidewalk — and then turned on Carson, seething, “What the f–k are you looking at?”
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.
Yesterday, friends set up a GoFundMe account for Carson’s girlfriend which has raised $66,391 of the $20,000 goal.