Is there currently an active serial killer investigation into a New York City male taxi driver who murders his passengers? No, that's not true: A Brooklyn District Attorney's Office spokesperson told Lead Stories they have no knowledge of an ongoing investigation regarding an active serial killer in New York or elsewhere. This is a recycled hoax that was previously debunked in 2018.
The claim reappeared in an Instagram post on October 16, 2022. The post displays a meme-like image of a mobile phone text thread with an image of a man in a car. The text above the image of the man in the post read:
*** Warning *** This is a man with Taxi number ( 2465RB) in NY Who drives around taking People to kill. He removed their parts. Share this message. At least save a life.🙏🏽 my friend from the DA's office in Brooklyn just sent me this. Share it for safety.
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thur Oct 20 17:41:30 2022 UTC)
In an October 20, 2022 email to Lead Stories, Oren Yaniv, the director of communications at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, responded "we know nothing about this," when asked about the validity of this claim.
Snopes got a similar response from a Brooklyn District Attorney's Office spokesperson in 2018.
If there were such an active serial killer, it would be a newsworthy event. But a Google News search using the keywords "Man In Photo Is A Taxi Driver In Brooklyn, New York In Search Of People To Kill" produced no results that substantiated this claim.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to active serial killer investigations can be found here.
