Florida Man Accused Of Killing Miami Senior With Sword Arrested On The L Train

Nicholas Brent Gibson.

A Miami man suspected of a grisly sword slaying rode the NYC subway on Sunday morning, and ran into local law enforcement when he stepped off the L train at 1st Avenue. After a scuffle, he was taken into custody, and is reportedly awaiting his return to Florida.

According to the NY Daily News, an NYPD officer and a transit sergeant spotted 32-year-old Nicholas Brent Gibson exiting onto the platform around 9:20 a.m., and recognized him from a photo Miami Beach detectives distributed on Friday. Gibson reportedly resisted arrest, but with the help of an MTA worker—who reportedly grabbed Gibson's legs so officers could restrain him—they eventually handcuffed the suspect. According to the Daily News, the cops sustained "minor injuries" in the altercation, although an NYPD spokesperson told Gothamist no one had been reported hurt, and attributed the arrest to "good police work."

Florida police believe Gibson may be responsible for the mutilation and murder of 77-year-old Erik Stocker, whose body cops found in his Miami Beach home on April 30th. The corpse had reportedly been lying there for 10 days before neighbors alerted police to a foul smell coming from Stocker's apartment. When they showed up to investigate, they encountered an "unusually gory scene," per the Miami Herald, leading them to conclude that whoever killed Stocker may have attacked him with a sword. Stocker's relationship to Gibson remains unclear, according to the Herald, but the younger man may have served as some kind of caretaker for the older man.

After detectives identified Gibson as a suspect, they learned that U.S. Marshalls were also looking for him, due to the 32-year-old's failure to register as a sex offender in an unrelated, decade-old case. The agencies tracked Gibson to New York City, where he could now face additional charges for assaulting an officer. He will be charged in Stocker's murder once he returns to Miami.