Tearful 18-year-old suspect charged with murder over random knife slaying of beloved NYC activist: sources

The 18-year-old man suspected in the grisly random stabbing death of a beloved Brooklyn social justice activist was arrested and charged Thursday as authorities recovered a knife and the sweatshirt the perp is believed to have worn during the early-morning slaying, cops said.

The person of interest, identified as Brian Dowling, was pictured with tears running down his face as officers escorted him from the 81st Precinct Thursday afternoon.

The teen – who had handcuffs around his wrists and ankles – was still wearing the same white t-shirt and stripped shorts he had a few hours earlier, when the was arrested while cops 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 as his girlfriend watched.

Dowling is charged with second-degree murder and criminal weapons possession, police confirmed.

Dowling did not make any statements to cops after his arrest, and has already enlisted a lawyer, sources said.

Cops were searching for clothing allegedly worn by the suspect during the caught-on-camera attack — and found both Dowling and his dark Champion sweatshirt, seen in the video of the attack, inside the apartment, the sources said.

Cops also found a knife in the home, and will be working to determine if it was the murder weapon, sources said.

The teen was escorted from the apartment into a squad car by a huddle of officers a video from CBS News showed.

More than a dozen officers descended on the property during the arrest and search, the outlet said.

“Assailant has been caught,” Carson’s father, Ken Carson, wrote on Facebook at 11:30 Thursday morning.

“More details will follow,” he added in a follow-up comment.

“I’m on the road…escorting Ryan Home to Massachusetts right now. I wasn’t leaving NYC without him.”

Friday, Oct. 6 would have been Carson’s 32nd birthday, records indicated.

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.

The 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 seemed to target Carson at random, forcing the community advocate to stand 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 pulls out a knife and stabs him three times, according to cops and the video.

Carson lay crumpled on the ground when the assailant turned on his girlfriend and spat 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 repeats 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.

“It was complete shock to hear about what [Dowling] did,” one neighbor, who requested to remain anonymous, told The Post a few hours after Dowling’s dramatic arrest.

“I mean what was he even doing roaming the street at that time of day, with a knife?”

The individual said he lived in the neighborhood all his life, and used to know Dowling’s family “better.”

He remembered the accused murderer as “a good kid.”

“Today with the young kids you know, they get all their stuff from the internet, all these bad influences and they don’t wanna hear what we got to say,” they lamented.

“I mean…one day you could be dead close to the person and they’re thinking murderous things or got a murderous mind. I mean that’s major.”

When asked about any history of drug abuse or mental illness, the neighor said he did not know Dowling or the family well enough to comment.