Brian Dowling of Brooklyn: Guilty Plea in Ryan Carson Stabbing

Brian Dowling is the Brooklyn man who fatally stabbed social justice activist Ryan Carson at a Bedford-Stuyvesant bus stop in the early hours of October 2, 2023. The Ryan Carson stabbing was captured on surveillance video, and in January 2025 Dowling pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced the following month to 20 years to life in prison.¹

What Happened at the Bus Stop

Around 3:50 a.m. on October 2, 2023, Carson and his girlfriend, Claudia Morales, were sitting at a bus stop outside 57 Malcolm X Boulevard on their way home from a wedding.² Dowling, then 18, walked past kicking parked scooters and mopeds, then turned on Carson. Surveillance footage recorded him yelling “I’m going to kill you” before pulling a knife.¹

Carson backed away, tripped over a bus stop bench, and fell. Dowling stabbed him multiple times on the ground, striking his heart.³ Morales attempted CPR and called 911, but Carson died of his injuries.⁴ He was 31.

Police said there had been no prior contact between Dowling and the couple. Prosecutors described the attack as random and unprovoked.⁵

How Dowling Was Identified and Arrested

A woman believed to be Dowling’s girlfriend was with him during the attack. Surveillance video captured her apologizing to Morales afterward and saying the name “Brian,” which helped detectives narrow their search.² The same camera outside 57 Malcolm X Boulevard also showed Dowling flinging the knife away and then returning to retrieve it; the weapon was later recovered hidden under greenery near the sidewalk.¹

On October 5, 2023, Dowling arrived at his apartment on Lafayette Avenue near Malcolm X Boulevard while detectives were searching it and was taken into custody around 11 a.m.² Inside, investigators recovered a sweatshirt matching the one worn by the assailant in the video, along with several knives whose handles resembled the murder weapon.⁶ He was arraigned the same day and held without bail. A grand jury later indicted him on second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, charges he initially denied.⁷

The Guilty Plea and Sentence

On January 22, 2025, Dowling appeared before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, accepting an offer of 20 years to life. He was 20 by then. Morales told reporters after the hearing that the plea marked the “end of a very long journey,” adding, “There was relief in knowing that part was over, but it is also never going to be over.”⁸

Justice Chun formally imposed the sentence on February 19, 2025. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said “justice has been served” but that the sentence “will not bring back Ryan Carson.” He called the killing “beyond abhorrent and senseless.”¹

Who Brian Dowling Was

Dowling grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant and had recently graduated from the Brooklyn High School for Leadership and Community Service. Paul Joseph, a teacher who had him in a senior English documentary film class, described him as “respectful,” and neighbors and a friend of his father called him a “good kid.”⁹

He had a twin sister, Brianna, and had worked in construction, at a restaurant, and at a high school in Clinton Hill. His record before the killing was thin: three summonses in 2022, including two for disorderly conduct, and a 2021 report in which he was the victim of a robbery. In July 2023, an aunt called 911 alleging that Dowling had smashed items in his girlfriend’s apartment and describing him as “mentally disturbed.”⁹

Who Ryan Carson Was

Ryan Thoresen Carson was raised in Humarock and East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and graduated from Pratt Institute in 2014 with a BFA in Writing with highest honors.¹⁰ He spent more than a decade at the New York Public Interest Research Group, where he coordinated a statewide campaign to expand New York’s 1982 bottle deposit law to cover wine, liquor, and noncarbonated beverages and to double the deposit from five cents to ten cents. The effort was backed by a coalition of more than 300 organizations.¹¹

After losing his best friend to a heroin overdose in 2016, Carson founded No OD NY in 2021 to push for supervised consumption sites where people could use drugs under medical supervision and be connected to treatment.¹² That July he walked 500 miles from New York City to Buffalo, holding rallies along the way to build support for legalizing overdose prevention centers.¹³ Two overdose prevention centers opened in New York City later that year.¹⁰

1
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 20 Years to Life in Prison for Unprovoked Fatal Stabbing of Innocent Activist
2
ABC News. Person of Interest in Custody in Unprovoked Stabbing Death of Brooklyn Activist
3
Brooklyn Paper. Bed-Stuy Man Pleads Guilty to Fatal Stabbing of Activist Ryan Carson
4
WNYC. Her Boyfriend Was Killed in a Random NYC Attack. Rightwing Trolls Mocked Her
5
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. Brooklyn Man Pleads Guilty to Unprovoked Killing of Innocent Activist
6
6abc. Ryan Carson Stabbing: Suspect Arrested in Killing of NYC Activist
7
ABC 7 New York. Brooklyn Murder: Brian Dowling Indicted in Ryan Carson Killing
8
The New York Times. Ryan Carson Stabbing: Suspect Pleads Guilty in Brooklyn Killing
9
New York Post. Brooklyn Stabbing Murder Suspect Brian Dowling Was ‘Respectful,’ Former Teacher Says
10
Keohane Funeral Home. Ryan Thoresen Carson Obituary
11
NYPIRG. NY Needs a Bigger Better Bottle Bill
12
Spectrum News. No OD NY Advocates Rally for Drug Overdose Awareness
13
Pratt Institute. Pratt Mourns Writing Department Community Leader and Mentor