Girlfriend and key witness to murdered NYC activist delivered a “potentially devastating and crippling” response on the murder suspect when she picked a “different” person from a photo line-up of potential suspects.
When 32-year-old Ryan Carson was slain at a bus stop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn early Monday morning, the social justice warrior’s girlfriend Claudia Morales was by his side. Despite surveillance footage showing her clearly looking the lead suspect in the face, the prosecution had revealed 18-year-old Brian Dowling was not the person she identified out of a photo array.
The Daily News had reported that during the suspect’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Jordan Rossman said, “The complainant’s girlfriend who witnessed the incident was shown a photo array. She picked a different person than the defendant out of the photo array.”
Speaking with the Messenger, former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow called Morales’ selection of a different image than the suspect “potentially devastating and crippling” to the case but it “doesn’t by any means mean that it’s over.”
The initial report on the incident detailed how the victim’s girlfriend had pled “Please, please, please!” as, seemingly unprovoked, the assailant fatally stabbed Carson, including a wound to his heart, before she instructed another woman who was believed to know the suspect to “Go watch him.”
Chilling video of man being stabbed to death randomly in front of his girlfriend while waiting for the bus https://t.co/mCpcEneG6k via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 4, 2023
However, Morales’ answer to the photo array was not all the prosecution had to work with as the New York Post reported that, according to prosecutors, “Two witnesses positively identified Dowling as Carson’s killer from a photo lineup and said he was the person seen stabbing the activist in a video of the senseless attack.”
“It’s really too early to tell,” added Bederow, now a defense attorney, who suggested, “If they found a weapon at this guy’s apartment and it has the DNA of the victim, that’s compelling in the other direction.”
“What the cops and prosecutor are going to have to do is work backward to find this guy’s location at the crime scene,” he went on.
Independent journalist Andy Ngô characterized Morales as a Black Lives Matter “activist” in a tweet last week that included an image of her wearing an ACAB t-shirt — the acronym stands for “All Cops are Bastards.”
Some local media captured the moment when the Brooklyn murder suspect of antifa activist Ryan Carson was arrested by the NYPD. CBS New York censored Brian Dowling’s face.
Neither Carson’s BLM-activist girlfriend Claudia Morales nor the police have addressed rumors that she was… pic.twitter.com/hPkZjwXhlg
— Andy Ngô ️ (@MrAndyNgo) October 5, 2023
Meanwhile, another former prosecutor turned defense laywer, Julie Rendelman, told the Messenger the photo selection was “something the defense can use to raise potential reasonable doubt,” but, “the stabbing is caught on video and the defendant’s face is fairly clear.”
She added, “It will likely be argued by the prosecution that the witness’ trauma in watching her boyfriend be stabbed before her eyes impacted her ability to identify the defendant.”
As his client was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, defense attorney Kenneth Montgomery spoke to Morales’ failure to positively identify Dowling from photos as beneficial to his case, “However, I am waiting to review the discovery and all of its context.”
Previously, Montgomery had been reported saying, “It’s pretty clear when you look at the video, he wasn’t out there looking for trouble but was in the middle of an episode, and in that episode, things unfolded.”
While the attorney did not affirm whether the individual in the video was Dowling, he added, “I do know this young man comes from a good family, and I can’t imagine him not being remorseful for something like this if the facts are what they are [and he did this.] He is a great kid but clearly may have some mental health issues.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.