The Metropolitan Police Department and New York Police Department have teamed up to investigate a series of attacks on people experiencing homelessness in both cities — including two that resulted in deaths in D.C. and New York City. The two agencies say they have identified a common suspect.

According to a press release from MPD on Sunday night, there have been five attacks this month across the two cities, the most recent of which happened in New York City on Saturday when two men experiencing homelessness were shot in separate incidents. One of the men died.

Three separate incidents were reported in D.C. over the last two weeks: a non-fatal shooting on New York Avenue NE on March 3, a second non-fatal shooting on H Street NE on March 8, and a tent fire on New York Avenue NE on March 9 where the victim was found and later determined to have been stabbed and shot.

In its statement, MPD said it is working alongside NYPD and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives because of the similarities in the cases and “recovered evidence” that possibly links them. Speaking on Monday afternoon on Bloomberg TV, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the shootings had been linked by ballistics.

Both police departments are circulating images of a possible suspect in the attacks: a man is pictured with a ski mask in New York, and a man appears without one in surveillance footage from D.C. Later on Monday morning MPD released full video of the man walking along New York Avenue NE.

“Our communities in D.C. and New York City are heartbroken and disturbed by these heinous crimes in which an individual has been targeting some of our most vulnerable residents,” Bowser and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a joint statement.

Bowser and Adams — who have scheduled a joint press conference in D.C. on Monday evening — said the two cities are coordinating to identify the suspect and called for D.C. and New York residents to report any information that may be useful to authorities.

“The work to get this individual off our streets before he hurts or murders another individual is urgent. The rise in gun violence has shaken all of us and it is particularly horrible to know that someone is out there deliberately doing harm to an already vulnerable population,” they added.

“From the first incident, the Metropolitan Police has spared no resource in our efforts to identify the suspect behind these cowardly acts. We are committed to sharing every investigative path, clue and piece of evidence with our law enforcement partners to bring this investigation to a swift conclusion and the individual behind these vicious crimes to justice,” D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III added in his own statement.

The attacks come amid an overall increase in homelessness in many cities since the pandemic started, one that has become more evident with the growth of encampments. While the number of people experiencing homelessness who died went down in D.C. last year after a multi-year rise, advocates say that unhoused people living on the street have faced increasing threats and acts of violence in recent years. In a 2020 report, the National Coalition for the Homeless said there is “a clear correlation between the growing visible presence of homelessness…and the number and severity of attacks from housed persons.”

In that same report, the National Coalition for the Homeless catalogued 1,852 nationwide incidents of violence against people experiencing homelessness from 1999 to 2019, 515 of them resulting in deaths. D.C. recorded 14 incidents in that time period. In 2019, a violent attack in New York City left four unhoused people dead.

Since last fall, D.C. officials have focused on closing designated large encampments, first by offering residents access to housing and services. But homeless advocates have criticized the program, saying that it has scattered some residents and left them less safe as a result.

“As our law enforcement agencies work quickly with federal partners to locate the suspect, we are also calling on unsheltered residents to seek shelter,” Bowser and Adams said. “Again, it is heartbreaking and tragic to know that in addition to all the dangers that unsheltered residents face, we now have a cold-blooded killer on the loose, but we are certain that we will get the suspect off the street and into police custody.”

Anyone with information is being asked to call 202-727-9099 or text MPD’s anonymous text tip line at 50411.