Homeless man accused of fatal Brooklyn subway slash was free without bail in earlier stabbing
The homeless man accused of fatally slashing a union steamfitter aboard a Brooklyn L train was free without bail after a 2021 knife attack in Brooklyn.
Alvin Charles, 43, was arrested in July 2021 and charged with attempted first-degree assault, accused of stabbing a man in the arm and stomach that April. Prosecutors asked for $50,000 bail, but Judge Jessica Earle-Gargen granted him supervised release.
Law enforcement sources said he was complying with the terms of his release and showing up at his court appearances, so when a grand jury indicted him on attempted murder charges in March, Supreme Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino continued his supervised release.
Charles is accused of getting into an argument with victim Tommy Bailey, 43, on a Canarsie-bound L train at around 8:50 p.m. Friday. He stabbed and slashed Bailey repeatedly in the head, neck and torso, killing him, according to a criminal complaint.
The stabbing was caught on video, and the NYPD used facial recognition software to identify Charles, the complaint alleges. Several people also witnessed the attack, according to cops, though the witnesses aren’t mentioned in the complaint.
Charles’ lawyer, Roy Wasserman of the Legal Aid Society, said he’s heard of no other evidence beyond the facial recognition hit that established Charles as the killer — software that “has been found by experts and other jurisdictions to be racially biased against darker-skinned people.”
“It says on police paperwork that I’ve observed before that it can be used in terms of investigation but it cannot be used for probable cause,” she said. “It seems that he became a suspect based on racially biased software that the NYPD uses. I haven’t heard otherwise.”
Wasserman tried, unsuccessfully, to have Charles released, arguing that New York state law doesn’t allow the judge to consider “dangerousness” when setting bail, and that his history complying with the court dates in his pending case proves he’s not a flight risk.
Judge Inga O’Neale nevertheless ordered Charles held without bail, based on the seriousness of the murder charge he faces.
