Arrest made in connection to Brooklyn advocate's shocking death in front of girlfriend

Police arrested the man they say stabbed a community advocate to death in front of his girlfriend early Monday morning in Brooklyn, law enforcement sources say.

Police executed a warrant Thursday morning for an apartment located near the scene of the fatal crime for clothing worn by the suspect when they found the suspect himself inside that apartment, sources said.

Eighteen-year-old Brian Dowling was taken into custody after officers executed a search warrant at his family home on Lafayette Avenue in connection to the shocking stabbing death of a public policy advocate who was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend while sitting on a bus bench early Monday morning.

Police say they found the sweatshirt he allegedly wore on the night of Ryan Carson's murder. A knife was also recovered, police said, adding that it still unknown if it is the murder weapon.

Dowling has been charged with murder-depraved indifference, police say. Attorney information was not immediately known.

Carson, 32, was waiting for a bus in Bed-Stuy near the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard with his girlfriend after attending a wedding when a man started kicking what appeared to be trash on the street, surveillance video showed, apparently after a fight with his girlfriend. The man could be heard cursing and threatening Carson saying, "I'm going to kill you right now."

Carson could be heard on the video trying to de-escalate the situation as the man approached him.

"Chill, chill, chill," Carson said.

The man, appearing to hold a knife in his right hand, took a swing at Carson's face and when Carson tried to run away and tripped over the bus bench, the suspect stabbed Carson multiple times, the video appeared to show.

Carson was transported by ambulance to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County where he was pronounced deceased, NYPD officials said.

The surveillance video also showed the suspect attacking Carson's girlfriend. While Carson is bleeding on the pavement, the suspect spit at her, kicked Carson, and then ran away.

After the stabbing, a woman believed to be Dowling's girlfriend is seen on surveillance apologizing to Carson's girlfriend.

Carson's friends and colleagues gathered Monday night for a candlelight vigil to remember him and his work.

Carson was active in public policy advocacy on a range of issues, including climate change and harm reduction.

"He is a larger than life character," said Blair Horner, executive director of NYPIRG, who worked with Carson. "He's very, very jovial, and charismatic staff loved him. His students loved him."

"It's a terrible tragedy. The world will be somewhat less well off because of his absence."

The investigation is going.