A social justice advocate in New York City was stabbed to death on the street in Brooklyn on Monday.
Ryan Carson, 32, was stabbed around 4 a.m. in the Crown Heights neighborhood at Lafayette Avenue and Malcom X Boulevard in what appeared to be a random, unprovoked attack.
Carson was reportedly standing at a bus stop with his girlfriend when the suspect came up to them and asked “What are you looking at?” and then stabbed Carson in the chest multiple times.
Carson was transported to Kings County Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
No suspects have been arrested, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
Carson’s friends and family gathered with candles at a park across the street from his home in Bedford-Stuyvesant to honor his life Monday night. Attendees said Carson and his girlfriend had left a wedding and were heading home when he was killed, News 12 reported.
New York Assembly Member Emily Gallagher said she was “absolutely in disbelief.”
“Ryan was the kindest, funniest, and hardest working man in advocacy. He and I bonded because our friends died in the opioid epidemic, & we struggled to make good out of our grief. He put his whole heart into making the world a safer place for all people,” Gallagher wrote in a post on X.
Carson was a government advocate known for his work related to drug overdose prevention and environmental recycling efforts.
He was a long-time campaign manager with the New York Public Interest Research Group when he died, working on recycling discarded bottles and cans and solid waste management.
“It’s incredibly tragic – a life full of promise is snuffed out – and the world is a worse place for it and we’ll miss him dearly,” said Blair Horner, Carson’s boss at the organization.
In 2021, Carson lobbied for “safe injection” drug sites, which allow people to take drugs under supervision. That year, Carson walked 350 miles from New York City upstate to Albany to pressure then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to legalize the drug consumption sites.
Later that year, New York City became the first city to allow supervised drug consumption sites. In the first three months, the city’s two locations in upper Manhattan reportedly saw about 800 people who made 9,500 visits. Staff claim they have prevented more than 1,000 overdoses since the sites opened. However, at one point, two regulars of the sites died when they overdosed elsewhere while the sites were closed at night.
Carson’s death came the same day Philadelphia journalist Josh Kruger, who was also a drug addiction advocate, was shot and killed at his home early Monday morning.
Kruger, 39, was shot seven times in the chest and abdomen at his home in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. He was found in the street, with police saying they suspect he came outside after he was shot to seek help before collapsing.
Detectives said Kruger’s death may have been drug-related or related to a domestic dispute, with investigators saying they found methamphetamine in Kruger’s bedroom, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
No arrests were immediately made, and no weapon was found, police said, but a person of interest has been identified in the case.
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