Authorities are sharing new information Monday about the human remains found in a sleeping bag that had been left on a Manhattan sidewalk for trash pickup a few days ago.
They say the body found in a sleeping bag, which was also bagged, on East 27th Street, is that of a 31-year-old woman who had been shot in the head. Cops ruled her death a homicide. Police sources later identified the victim as Yazmeen Williams.
Officers found the decomposing body when they responded to reports of a suspicious package with a foul smell outside a building in Kips Bay. The remains were in a sleeping bag left alongside other garbage bags on the curb for pickup.
Video and photos shared on social media show what appears to be a full-sized body covered in a dark sleeping bag that was further wrapped in black trash bags. Sources told NBC New York that surveillance video appeared to show a person in an electric wheelchair pulling the sleeping bag in tow.
Police said that a man in his 50s was arrested in connection with the incident, with charges against him pending.
The suspect had to be escorted out of the area near the Straus Houses after he was taken into custody by police because neighbors tried to beat him up. Officers and paramedics held the mob back while punches were thrown, as others were seen spitting on him. Tensions were high until the man was put into an ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital.
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"He’s disgusting… he looks like scum," said Nicole Williams, the mother of the victim. "They were angry. He...took her life away...threw my daughter in a garbage bag."
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No other details were immediately available Monday.
