Street Erupts When Man in a Wheelchair Is Taken Into Custody in Killing

The body of Yazmeen Williams, 31, had been found on a Manhattan curb, wrapped in a sleeping bag.

A Manhattan street erupted in anger on Monday when a man in a wheelchair was taken into custody in the killing of a young woman, whose body had been found wrapped in a blue sleeping bag days before.

At least 50 neighbors and family members of the woman, Yazmeen Williams, 31, swarmed the police officers who placed the man on a stretcher and whisked him out of an apartment building in the Straus Houses, a public housing development on East 28th Street near Second Avenue. Some got close enough to punch him in the face, grab his jeans and rip the back of his blue-and-yellow striped shirt. Officers and emergency service workers held out their arms to keep the crowd at bay.

Some of the loudest screams were from Ms. Williams’s mother, Nicole Williams.

“You killed my daughter! Please kill him!” she cried out.

“She didn’t deserve that,” her mother said. “She was a good daughter. She was my best friend.”

The man, who has not yet been named by the police, was considered a person of interest in the woman’s death on Monday but has not been charged. Neighbors said he and Yazmeen Williams were a couple, but the family said they were not familiar with him.