Punches, Rages: Before Chinatown Killings, Suspect Grew Ever More Violent

Randy Santos is accused of going on a murderous rampage, killing four homeless men, after years of erratic behavior.

By Edgar Sandoval, Nikita Stewart and Ashley Southall @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 8, 2019. Updated 6:58 p.m. ET

Randy Rodriguez Santos was unemployed and living in an abandoned building, so in recent weeks he was eager to do odd jobs for the Segarras, a couple who lived next door to his mother in the Bronx.

He cleaned up their yard and replaced railings. The Segarras paid him modestly in cash and offered him sandwiches. Then in late September, Mr. Santos, 24, stopped showing up to work.

That was nothing new, the Segarras said. Mr. Santos had often disappeared and reappeared from the block on East 183rd Street since his arrival in New York City five years ago. This time, however, his behavior was odd.

“He seemed lost,” Lydia Segarra said. “He would forget that he just saw you.”

What happened next rattled the conscience of the city.

[....]

The murderous rampage followed years of erratic and violent behavior, the police said. A year ago, Mr. Santos was arrested on charges that he choked and bit a 55-year-old man at an employment agency in Manhattan’s garment district. Four days later, he was accused of punching a man on the Q train.

Then in March, a 19-year-old woman reported to the police he groped her buttocks at a shelter in Jamaica, Queens. And in May, he was accused of exploding in rage and punching a 24-year-old man in a shelter in Brooklyn.

But neither the criminal justice system, nor the city’s network of social services agencies, sounded alarms about Mr. Santos’s potential for violence. He also wiggled out from under the watchful eye of an aunt and concerned neighbors, who urged him to seek counseling.

Mr. Santos would go into homeless shelters, but he was kicked out at least twice for punching other residents. He was jailed several times, on charges including fare evasion and assault, but was always released.

He was arrested on assault charges six times, and in three recent cases from Brooklyn and Manhattan, charges against him were dropped because the victims stopped cooperating, law enforcement officials said.

Earlier this year, a judge gave him two chances to avoid jail time after he was arrested as he tried to sneak into the subway without paying, requiring him to enroll in social services.

But he never signed up and he also skipped a court date in the groping case, resulting in warrants being issued for his arrest. Police officers picked him up in May, then again in late July, and he landed on Rikers Island.

Then in August, the Bronx Freedom Fund, a charity that provides bail to poor people charged with low-level offenses, put up $1,000 to secure his release.

David Feige, the chairman of the fund, said the nonprofit screens people for its help, and had determined Mr. Santos was eligible because his lawyer had said Mr. Santos was being counseled by a social worker. He could not provide details.

Mr. Santos returned to his mother’s neighborhood, squatting in the abandoned building.

In the days before the killings, neighbors noticed he had become withdrawn and seemed troubled. [....]