Image David Baril Credit... New York Police Department

He had family connections to the Bronx, but Mr. Baril’s most recent address was a 40-bed shelter for mentally ill people on West 113th Street in Manhattan, officials said; he left there around November or December.

A resident of the shelter who gave his name as Karim recognized a photograph of Mr. Baril and said he had stayed there beginning around last summer. “He just talked to himself,” Karim, 44, said. He said Mr. Baril mumbled incoherent things to himself and had difficulty interacting with others.

Mr. Baril had lived on the sixth floor of the shelter, which is run by Weston United, in a room with another man, said Karim, who declined to provide his full name because he was not sure he was allowed to talk to the news media. Mr. Baril wore a lot of red clothes and carried a backpack. “He comes in and out,” Karim said. “He comes in and out. He never really said nothing.”

Karim nodded toward a chair near the door of the shelter’s television room, remembering Mr. Baril cooking popcorn in the microwave and eating it as he watched television.

Colby Dillon, a lawyer for the Bronx Defenders who has represented Mr. Baril, said the depiction of Mr. Baril was inaccurate. “Far from the monster he is being made out to be,” Ms. Dillon said, “Mr. Baril is a human being who is loved by his family, took concrete steps to secure steady employment and had dreams of completing his college degree in biology.”