The 18-year-old man suspected in the grisly random stabbing death of a beloved Brooklyn social-justice activist was taken into custody Thursday morning, law-enforcement sources said.
The person of interest, identified as Brian Dowling, was nabbed when NYPD officers executed a search warrant at a home on Lafayette Avenue, near Malcolm X Boulevard – just down the block from where Ryan Carson, 32, was knifed to death early Monday while with his girlfriend, sources told The Post.
Cops were searching for clothing allegedly worn by the suspect during the caught-on-camera attack – and found Dowling inside the apartment, the sources said.
Law enforcement sources previously identified a “mentally disturbed” teen as the main person of interest in the murder of Carson, who was attacked near at a B38 bus stop in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 4 a.m. Monday.
Carson – a longtime campaign organizer for the New York Public Interest Research Group – and his girlfriend were heading home from a wedding on Long Island when the senseless attack occurred, police said.
The assailant – who wore a dark “Champion” sweatshirt – seemed to target Carson at random, forcing the community advocate to stand up between the stranger and his girlfriend, the troubling surveillance footage obtained by The Post showed.
The unhinged man can be heard yelling “I’ll kill you!” before the two scuffle, with Carson eventually tumbling over the bus stop bench while the attacker pulled out a knife and stabbed him three times, according to cops and the video.
Carson lay crumpled on the ground when the assailant turned on his girlfriend and spit on her.
An unknown woman – who police said knows the suspect – then appears in the corner of the frame and seems to beg the knife-wielding man to not “hurt him” and repeating what sounds like “Brian.”
Carson died from a stab wound that pierced his heart, officials said.
By Wednesday, police said they had identified the alleged perpetrator but were waiting for “probable cause to make this arrest,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said during a press conference.
Dowling was issued three summonses in 2022 – including two for disorderly conduct – and was a robbery victim in 2021, sources said.
He was also cited in an incident report related to a July incident in which his aunt claimed he smashed objects in his girlfriend’s apartment following a fight, and described him in a 911 call as mentally disturbed, sources said.
Police said the alleged attacker may have been fighting with his girlfriend shortly before he began kicking over and damaging mopeds and scooters that were parked on the sidewalk – and then turned on Carson, seething, “What the f–k are you looking at?”
Sources said the teen works at a high school in Clinton Hill and is known to frequent the area of Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene.
It is unclear if he had a juvenile record, which would be sealed.