Hours after a person stabbed a man to death Friday in South Austin, Gov. Greg Abbott speculated on Twitter that the suspect was homeless.

"When all facts are revealed I bet you’ll learn that the killer was a homeless man with prior arrests," Abbott tweeted. "If so Austin’s reckless homeless policy puts lives in danger to murders like this. Austin leaders must answer for their perilous policies."

Austin police have not publicly confirmed whether the suspect is homeless.

Austin police have not yet identified the 27-year-old suspect or the victim, who was also a man in his 20s. Police said they believe the attack was random.

The suspect assaulted someone at a South Austin cafe Friday morning before going to a nearby burrito shop and stabbing two people — one of them fatally. He jumped from the roof of the burrito shop and was eventually detained, Austin police said.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he does not know whether the suspect was homeless, but the city’s camping policies are irrelevant to this homicide.

"Most of the people that are committing murders and committing crimes in our city, we know, are not experiencing homelessness," Adler said. "So whether this particular person was or was not doesn't change the nature of the conversation. ... To suggest that people experiencing homelessness are criminals is just wrong. It's like saying that immigrants are rapists. It’s just not true. And beyond that, it's a harmful thing to suggest. And when people demonize people experiencing homelessness, we all suffer."

Abbott has taken to Twitter many times throughout 2019 to slam the Austin City Council’s changes to its laws regarding where people can camp, sleep and lie in the city.

Several Austin City Council members, including Greg Casar and Paige Ellis, also criticized Abbott’s tweet Friday.

"Whether or not we find out that this suspect was experiencing homelessness, regardless of that, this murder clearly has nothing to do with camping — the old camping policies or the new camping policies," Casar said. "That the governor wants to turn someone’s death into a tweet to score political points against homeless folks is just despicable."

"Clearly, someone should take Twitter away from the governor," Paige Ellis said.

After the City Council amended its ordinances, Abbott told Austin he’d clear camps from highway underpasses if the city wouldn’t. On Nov. 4, dozens of homeless people were displaced as state crews moved in.

While Abbott’s criticisms played out on social media in 2019, he did little to communicate with Mayor Steve Adler through official channels. The only direct communication in 2019 from Abbott’s office to Austin were two letters, public records obtained by the American-Statesman show.

In November, Abbott declared that a lot along U.S. 183, about a mile south of Montopolis Drive, would serve as a temporary camping site for people experiencing homelessness in Austin.