A crack addict accused of murdering three elderly neighbors in a Brooklyn housing complex last year moved into the building and was able to stay there because of the city's COVID moratorium that banned evictions.
Kevin Gavin was charged in January with the brutal murders of Myrtle McKinny, 82, Jacolia James, 83, and most recently, Juanita Caballero, 78 - all of whom lived in the Carter G. Woodson Houses in between Brownsville and East New York.
Gavin moved into the building in 2015, sleeping on a mattress on his brother's floor.
His brother, Leon, had been in the building for years and was affectionately known to the other residents as Music Man because he held parties in the courtyard by hooking up a speaker to his mobility scooter and playing music, according to a feature on the murders by New York Magazine on Tuesday.
When Leon died in April 2020, his brother simply stayed in his apartment. He wasn't evicted - despite the best efforts of residents who had grown suspicious of him - because of a statewide COVID ban on evictions.
Gavin became known as 'Point' because he carried an ice pick. He was lurking around the residents' apartments, according to their neighbors, had a glass-eye, and sometimes begged for money for drugs.
By April 2020, he had allegedly already killed McKinny (who was found dead in 2015) and Jacolia James (found dead in the building in 2019).
NYPD detectives considered him a suspect at the time but did nothing to follow up leads beyond calling him once or twice.
Kevin Gavin was charged in January with the brutal murders of Myrtle McKinny, 82, Jacolia James, 83, and most recently, Juanita Caballero, 78. They all lived in the Carter G. Woodson Houses in between Brownsville and East New York
The victims and alleged serial killer all lived at Carter G. Woodson Houses in between Brownsville and East New York
He would go on to murder 78-year-old Juanita Caballero, a grandmother who was found dead in her apartment in the same building with a telephone chord
