Now police have accused him of committing a gruesome murder. On Sunday morning, police arrested Brown, 34, and charged him with second-degree murder, attempted murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon after they said he stabbed his ex-girlfriend and killed her pregnant friend over the weekend in the Bushwick Houses, a public housing complex in Brooklyn.
Investigators found a bloody ax in the building’s trash compactor that the police said they believed Brown used in the attack. The police will conduct more tests on the ax to confirm whether it is the murder weapon.
Police said Brown stabbed the women in the apartment of his former girlfriend, Angela Valle, where he sometimes stayed. She was also wounded in the attack. An Uber driver Valle had hailed saw her bleeding and called police. The responding officers found Savannah Rivera, 20, in her friend’s apartment, partially decapitated with several fingers severed, police said.
Valle’s 4-year-old daughter was found unharmed in a bedroom, officials said.
Brown surrendered to police Saturday and was admitted Sunday to a hospital where he was scheduled to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to police. He could not be reached for comment, and it was unclear whether he had a lawyer.
Brown’s violent history includes a conviction for attempted murder and an arrest in 2017 on charges of attempting to strangle a former girlfriend, according to public records. He pleaded guilty to shooting another man in 2002, when he was 17.
In an interview Saturday before his arrest, Brown told television statio, Pix11 that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and said he did not remember attacking the women earlier that day. After the interview, Brown contacted detectives and arranged to meet them in Manhattan, police said. They drove him back to the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, where he was arrested.
Valle remained in the hospital in serious condition Sunday. As of Sunday evening, investigators had not interviewed her or Brown and were still trying to determine a motive for the attack.
Rivera’s family said she was two months pregnant. Her aunt, Margaret Cruz, held back tears as she called for the killer to pay with his life.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.