2 arrested in deadly attack on homeless man sleeping in NYC parking lot

NEW YORK (AP) — Two men were arrested on manslaughter charges Friday in the beating death of a homeless man who was accosted while sleeping in a supermarket parking lot in Brooklyn, police said.

The suspects were awaiting arraignment, and it wasn’t clear whether they had attorneys who could comment on the allegations.

Police said Cos Jervis Jonas Ajpuac, 38, and another man were pummeled with metal pipes and a baseball bat around 7 p.m. Sept. 18, police said. Ajpuac succumbed to his injuries Oct. 2. The other man, a 42-year-old, survived.

The assailants “just attacked them while they were sleeping,” store security worker Stephen DeGrasse told the Daily News, saying he had seen security footage of the beating.

He said the victims and the suspects all frequented the same ShopRite supermarket to redeem the five-cent deposit on bottles and cans they had collected.

They were friends, he said, and would drink beer together after cashing the bottles in.

There was no immediate information from police about what sparked the attack.