Teen arrested in fatal stabbing of beloved Brooklyn poet and activist Ryan Carson

New York City police arrested an 18-year-old Thursday in the slaying of a prominent Brooklyn poet in what authorities say was an unprovoked attack.

NYPD officer Isa Acosta confirmed to USA TODAY that Brian Dowling faces murder and criminal possession of a weapon charges in relation to the death of Ryan Thoreson Carson.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kennedy said at a news conference Wednesday on the city's crime statistics that Carson, 31, was killed in a stabbing in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood early Monday.

Kennedy said that when police arrived, Carson was lying unresponsive on the sidewalk near the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard. He died at Kings County Hospital.

Carson's death shocked many of his loved ones and those who knew him through his advocacy and poetry.

"Ryan Carson threw himself into everything he did with passion and humanity," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I worked with him on a big townhall he hosted with NYPIRG and on the Inflation Reduction Act. A rising talent and an extraordinary activist. May his memory and work inspire us."

Carson attacked while waiting for bus

Carson was with a female companion Monday waiting for a bus to his home nearby when the suspect walked past the couple and appeared to damage some parked scooters, Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the suspect asked Carson, "What are you looking at?"

When Carson stepped in front of his companion, the suspect began swinging a knife at the poet, who fell to the ground, Kennedy said.

"The unidentified male begins to stab Mr. Carson three times, striking him once in the right chest. And the knife pierces Mr. Carson's heart, causing his death," Kennedy said.

After the attack, an unidentified woman approached Carson's companion and apologized while saying the name "Brian," Kennedy said.

Family, friends mourn Carson's death

Carson worked at the New York Public Interest Research Group for nearly a decade, starting while he was studying at Pratt Institute, NYPIRG said in a statement Monday. He focused on community outreach and led the organization's campaign on modernizing New York state's bottle deposit law.

"Ryan was a beloved staffer, colleague and friend, and a creative, talented, relentless and upbeat advocate for students and the environment," NYPIRG said. "His engaging personality, hearty laugh and wide-ranging intelligence were keys to his success in advancing the causes he deeply cared about in his work and personal life."

According to Caron's LinkedIn page, Carson walked more than 300 miles across New York State in 2021 to call attention to the state's opioid crisis and the need for harm reduction after he lost a close friend to an overdose in 2016. That led him to create the No OD NY campaign in 2021, according to an announcement shared on YouTube.

"My feet ache thinking about it, but my heart is relieved from working with the people I met along the way, who eased my grief and helped us to gain crucial ground," Carson wrote.