Shocking Video Showing Man In Ski Mask Shoot Homeless Man In The Head While He Slept In NYC, Killer Shot Another Before Leaving

NYPD investigators are urgently hunting a serial shooter who shot two homeless men while they slept in the street yesterday in two terrifying, separate attacks that are exemplary of New York's worsening crime crisis.

One of the victims died after being shot in the head and the neck at 6am on 148 Lafayette Street, opposite the exclusive and expensive 11 Howard hotel. It took 12 hours for police to realize he was dead and recover his body - riddled with bullet holes - from the bright yellow sleeping bag he'd been in.

At 4.30am, the killer shot a different homeless man in the arm on nearby King Street. That victim survived and was taken to the hospital.

In the Lafayette Street killing, the suspect was filmed in chilling surveillance footage wearing a black ski mask and black clothing. He was seen prodding the helpless victim and looking around before firing his fatal shots.

In an urgent appeal yesterday, Mayor Eric Adams said: 'Homelessness turning into a homicide. We need to find this person and we need New Yorkers to help us. This is a cold blooded act of murder.'

In the first attack, the 38-year-old victim was asleep on King Street, between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue when the shooter approached him at 5am. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital and is expected to survive.

When the shooter fired at him, he woke up and yelled: 'What the hell are you doing?' according to police. The second victim's age is not known but he was described by police as a Hispanic man.