Knife-wielding suspect sought in three Brooklyn police-killed murders

Police shot and killed a suspect wanted for triple murder in Brooklyn on Friday night after he reportedly attacked them with a knife, police said.

According to NYPD Chief of Division Jeffrey Maddrey, officers from the Brooklyn Warrant Squad were attempting to arrest 38-year-old Vilmond Jean-Baptiste on an outstanding warrant from 2022 when they found the suspect fully clothed hiding in the bathtub of an apartment at 485 E. 21st St. near Dorchester Road in Flatbush around 5:30 p.m.

After police asked the suspect to get out of the tub and show his hands, officers noticed he was armed with a knife and ordered him to drop the weapon, Maddrey said.

A police sergeant tried to stop Jean-Baptiste with a stun gun, but this proved ineffective, according to Maddrey, and at least three police officers shot the suspect.

Paramedics took Jean-Baptiste to Kings County Hospital, where he died.

According to sources, a knife was seized at the crime scene.

As police pushed Jean-Baptiste into an ambulance, a man was heard screaming: “He shot my brother. He killed my brother for nothing,” said Kadeem Muhammed, who lived a block away when the shooting occurred.

A crowd then gathered outside the building and began throwing objects at police. One officer was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital for treatment after being hit in the leg by a bottle. At least one person in the crowd was reportedly arrested.

Ziyne Abdo, 29, watched as the sight of paramedics treating Jean-Baptiste infuriated the crowd.

“He was lying on the stretcher. His upper body was covered in blood. He was unconscious,” Abdo said. “They performed CPR. The crowd saw him and got angry. Someone threw a bottle and the police attacked. They said, 'Get him, get him!'”

According to Chief of Criminal Investigation Joseph Kenny, Jean-Baptiste was suspected of killing a 54-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man. Their bodies were found badly decomposed in the woman's apartment on Ditmas Ave. near East Seventh Street on July 24.

Investigators later determined that both victims had been stabbed, Kenny said.

A neighbor of the victims spoke to the Daily News shortly after the bodies were found and said she last saw the dead woman about a week before the bodies were discovered.

“I came down to pick up my package, but that's when I saw her,” said the tenant, who wished to remain anonymous. “It was Thursday or Friday. I think I was one of the last people to see her.”

Neighbor Cheque Horton, 47, said the woman had knocked on his door in the past and asked for sugar and other “random things.”

He had noticed the bad smell over the last few days, but thought it was coming from the sewer.

“(When) we entered the building, we saw the crime scene and thought, 'Oh, we smelled that,'” he said.

Jean-Baptiste was also involved in the death of 66-year-old Claudette Jones, who was found stabbed to death in the kitchen of her East 56th Street apartment on August 22.

The suspect had a romantic relationship with both female victims, Kenny said. He also said Jean-Baptiste regularly met older women and used their homes to do drugs.

Jones was a long-time drug addict and, according to her children's adopted brother, eventually lost custody of her children because of her addiction problems.

“Claudette was involved with drugs,” said Anthony Grimes, 69, whose mother adopted the children of 66-year-old Claudette Jones years ago. “She lived with a guy who did drugs. A lot of people came and went from her house.”

During the fatal shooting on Friday evening, the suspect's mother was in the apartment when her son was shot at least 10 times, according to his brother.

“My mother was in the house,” said 42-year-old Johnny Jean-Baptiste. “She watched her son die.”

The suspect's older brother said police should have found a non-lethal way to subdue his brother, who was armed with a knife.

“My brother didn't have a gun,” his brother said. “They could have handled him differently. I want to see the body camera to see what really happened.”

According to his brother, Vilmond Jean-Baptist had two small children, a boy and a girl, and a wife who died of breast cancer.

“She's in hospice. Where you go to die,” said the suspect's brother. “I can't believe this.”

When his older brother was questioned about the suspect's alleged crimes, he admitted that he might have a few skeletons in his closet.

“Nobody is perfect,” said the suspect’s sibling.

Originally published: September 13, 2024 at 18:35