Police and residents said on Monday that a 31-year-old woman was found outside in Midtown Manhattan wrapped in a sleeping bag with a gunshot wound to her head on Friday, and officials are investigating her death as a homicide.
The woman, identified by police on Monday as Yazmeen Williams of Manhattan, was found unresponsive around 5 p.m. on Friday after officers checked out a 911 call about a suspicious package in front of 207 East 27th St. in Kips Bay, according to the NYPD. The department has not yet announced any arrests, but said the city Office of the Chief Medical Examiner deemed her death a homicide on Sunday.
Neighbors interviewed on Monday described the discovery of a gruesome scene outside a residential building.
“I came out to go get some groceries and I noticed there was a 6-foot sleeping bag just sitting out here,” said Eric Rudow, pointing to the sidewalk where a memorial had been set up with candles, flowers, balloons and a photo of a woman with a tight smile in a white dress with a bow in the front. He said the bag was covered in flies and smelled like death.
So far this year, there have been two homicides in the 13th Precinct, which includes parts of Kips Bay, Flatiron and Gramercy Park, compared to one by the same point last year, according to NYPD data. The precinct recorded two shootings through July 7, up from none in the same period in 2023.
In a small courtyard near where the woman was found, several people said they knew her but only by the moniker “Black Angel.”
“She just hung out, came with her friends in here and then they hung out and they leave,” said Crystal Maxim Jones. “Drinking and that's it. I didn't see any other drugs — weed, and that's it.”
Neighbor Ed Thiede said he was taken aback by the killing.
“[U]sually there's not something of this nature [around here],” he said. “So it's just very odd.”
This story has been updated with the identity of the victim.
