The man accused of brutally beating four homeless men to death on the streets of Chinatown earlier this month was back in court Monday to face charges in an indictment against him, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. announced.
Randy Santos, 24, is charged with four counts of murder and two for attempted murder after he went on a rampage with metal bar in Chinatown during the early morning hours of Oct. 5, shaking the community and calling attention the need for better homeless services.
The indictment includes an incident in Chelsea eight days earlier in which Santos allegedly attempted to kill another man. In that episode, he allegedly struck a victim in the head and neck, then attempting to throw him into the Hudson River.
“There is perhaps no population more vulnerable to violence than the growing number of unsheltered New Yorkers who lack a safe place to sleep,” Vance said. “As my Office works to secure justice for Cheun Kok, Anthony Mason, Nazario Abdelardo Vazquez Villegas, and a tragically still-unidentified neighbor, our City can further honor their memories by delivering secure housing to all New Yorkers. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the victims’ loved ones as our community begins to heal.”
Surveillance footage allegedly captured Santos, on the morning of Oct. 5, in the act of seeing Mason sleeping before fetching a metal bar and returning to bludgeon the man to death, striking him in the head seven times, in front of 17 East Broadway.
Santos is accused of then crossing the street to 2 East Broadway where the three other men were sleeping alongside one another. Using the same weapon, prosectors said, Santos allegedly bashed the men as well, killing Villegas and a man still unidentified almost a month later. One other individual was injured in this stage of the attacks.
After abandoning the metal bar, Santos allegedly came upon Cheun Kok sleeping near Doyers Street, the DA said. Santos allegedly retrieved the bar that he used on the other sleeping men and struck Kok three times before witnesses called 911.
Kok was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the DA. While cops were surveying the scene of Kok’s murder, the survivor of the 2 East Broadway attack came stumbling towards emergency responders who rushed him to a nearby hospital with serious injuries.
Santos himself was allegedly found by 5th Precinct officers with still clutching the murder weapon in near Mulberry and Canal Streets.
The defendant, originally from the Bronx, is being represented by Legal Aid Society. His next court date is pending.
