Midtown woman found dead in sleeping bag from gunshot wound, police and neighbors say

Police and residents said Monday that a 31-year-old woman was found wrapped in a sleeping bag outside in Midtown Manhattan on Friday with a gunshot wound to the head. Police are investigating her death as a homicide.

The woman, identified by police on Monday as Yazmeen Williams of Manhattan, was found unconscious around 5 p.m. on Friday after officers responded to a 911 call about a suspicious package outside 207 East 27th St. in Kips Bay, according to the NYPD. The department has not yet announced any arrests but said the city’s chief medical examiner’s office ruled her death a homicide on Sunday.

Neighbors interviewed on Monday described discovering a gruesome scene in front of a residential building.

“I came out to get groceries and noticed there was a 6-foot-long sleeping bag lying out there,” Eric Rudow said, pointing to the sidewalk where a memorial had been set up with candles, flowers, balloons and a photo of a woman with a tight smile in a white dress with a bow in the front. He said the sleeping bag was full of flies and smelled of death.

There have been two homicides so far this year in the 13th Precinct, which includes parts of Kips Bay, Flatiron and Gramercy Park, compared to one at the same time last year, according to NYPD data. The precinct recorded two shootings through July 7, and none during the same period in 2023.

In a small courtyard near where the woman was found, several people said they knew her only by the nickname “Black Angel.”

“She was just hanging out, coming here with her friends and then they would hang out and leave,” Crystal Maxim Jones said. “Drinking and that was it. I didn’t see any other drugs – weed and that was it.”

Neighbor Ed Thiede said he was shocked by the murder.

“We don’t normally have anything like this here,” he said. “So it’s just very strange.”

This story has been updated with the identity of the victim.