Stabbing of Timothy Caughman

The stabbing of Timothy Caughman took place on March 20, 2017 in Manhattan, New York City. Caughman, a retiree, was collecting cans for recycling when James Harris Jackson, a 28-year-old Afghan War veteran, allegedly approached him and stabbed him multiple times. Caughman later died of his injuries. Caughman was African-American, and Jackson is white. The killing was allegedly motivated by white supremacy. Attack: Jackson traveled by bus from his home in Baltimore, Maryland to New York City on March 17 with the intention of killing black men in order to prevent white women from having interracial relationships with them, according to reports. He stayed at the The Hotel Times Square on W. 46th Street. On March 20, Jackson allegedly walked up to Caughman with an 18-inch sword and stabbed him to death in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Jackson turned himself in to police on March 22. According to police, Jackson told them that he planned to attack more black men in Times Square. Victim: Caughman was born in 1950 or 1951 in Jamaica, Queens. His parents were a home health care aide and a pastor. He was raised in the South Jamaica Houses in Queens. He graduated from Brooklyn College with an associate's degree and earned a living as a social service worker. He took up can and bottle recycling to earn money and keep busy. For the last 20 years of his life, he lived on West 36 Street in Manhattan, in a building known as The Barbour Hotel. It is now housing for people transitioning out of homelessness, but Caughman was not homeless. Perpetrator: The attacker, James Harris Jackson, later turned himself in to the police and said he had targeted Caughman for being black. Jackson, a Baltimore, Maryland native, said he took the bus to Manhattan to kill black men, whom he said he had hated for over ten years. Jackson said he picked New York because he wanted to make a statement. He was charged with second-degree murder at a March 23 arraignment, though the prosecutor is reportedly working on upgrading the charge to the first degree, as well as adding a hate crime charge. He did not apply for bail and is being held pending his next court date March 27. Legal proceedings: On March 27, Jackson was charged with one count each of murder in the first and second degrees as an act of terrorism, second-degree murder as a hate crime, and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the New York State Supreme Court.