A man has been arrested in connection with an unprovoked attack on homeless individuals in downtown Miami early Thursday morning. The assault left two people dead and two others hospitalized. Authorities are investigating the incident, which has shocked the local community.
Brenton Clarke, 36, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and armed robbery with a deadly weapon. Clarke, whose permanent address is listed in Inwood, New York, has not yet explained his presence in Miami. The attack took place around 6 a.m. Thursday, when Miami police responded to reports of a man armed with a stick assaulting several individuals, according to Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales.
An arrest report for Clarke details that police spoke to several witnesses and obtained surveillance video that shows the attack.
Clarke can allegedly be seen attacking a couple that was sleeping on the sidewalk on NW 6th Street with a metal rod. Then he runs across the street and “delivers several strikes” to a third person, before he starts pulling on that victim’s belongings.
Clarke then runs westbound on NW 6th Street toward NW 1st Avenue with those stolen items, an arrest report states. About five minutes later, he allegedly uses the metal rod to attack a fourth person, who was sleeping on the sidewalk.
Then, just before 6 a.m., police said video shows how Clarke comes back toward the third victim, “who is now on his knees,” and attacks him with a large wooden stick witnesses say he picked up nearby.
He hits the victim several times, and knocks him flat on the ground, the arrest report states. Then he goes back to the couple, and attacks them again.
Surveillance allegedly then shows how the suspect confronts a fifth person, but he is “ultimately confronted by an armed witness,” so he throws the large wooden stick and flees westbound.
Two of the four victims died from their injuries, Morales said. The other two were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital for treatment.
During the search for the suspect, officers discovered a green hoodie and blue hat, which Clarke was seen wearing in surveillance footage, hidden under a white Mercedes-Benz parked south of NW 6th Street on NW 1st Court. At around 6:10 a.m., an officer spotted Clarke, who was observed with “apparent wet stains on his pants and shoes,” later determined to be blood spatter, according to the arrest report.
Authorities said Clarke was exhibiting frantic behavior, running in the middle of the road in what appeared to be an attempt to flee the scene. He was arrested after a brief foot pursuit.
“This is a horrible incident, the officers on the scene and the Miami Police Department is appalled at this display of unprovoked violence,” Morales said Thursday. “It appears the individual has no local criminal past, he does have some minor criminal run-ins with the police up in New York.”
Clarke was transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he is scheduled to appear in bond court on Friday. Authorities have yet to determine a motive for the crime.
