Police have arrested a teenager for stabbing and killing a man near Times Square earlier this week, NYPD officials said Thursday.
The 17-year-old boy was taken into custody Wednesday evening near Stillwell and Surf avenues in Coney Island, police said. Officers from the local precinct spotted him jumping a turnstile and later found a scalpel on him, according to police. Officials said they are still investigating whether that was the weapon used in the Midtown attack.
Authorities identified the man who was killed as Leonides Baez, 39. They said he was stabbed to death Monday night outside a building on West 43rd Street near Broadway, a busy area filled with theaters, restaurants and other attractions.
Police said officers found Baez around 11:30 p.m. with stab wounds to his torso and back as well as a slash wound to his face. First responders took him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said they found surveillance video showing Baez arguing with three people before he was stabbed, but the actual stabbing was not caught on camera. They said they are looking for the other two people involved in the argument.
The teen was charged with murder and criminal weapons possession, the NYPD said. Police officials said the teen later told investigators that he attacked the man as part of a social media trend.
Information for his lawyer was not immediately available, and officials did not identify him because he is a minor.
Baez’s last known address was in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to the NYPD.
Department data shows there were two other homicides so far this year through May 3 in the Midtown South Precinct, which includes the bustling hubs of Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, Koreatown and Manhattan Mall Plaza. There were no homicides recorded in the precinct during the same timeframe last year.
All other major crime categories in Midtown South are down or at roughly the same level compared to the same period in 2025, the data shows.
Citywide, homicides are down more than 28% compared to this time last year, while felony assaults are down by just over 1%, according to officials. Police said this week that the city had its fewest killings on record for the first four months of the year, breaking the previous record set in 2018.
Charles Lane contributed reporting. This story is based on preliminary information from police and has been updated with additional details.
