But curiosity gave way to shock over why the police were there; Mr. Matthews, 31, was charged with attempted murder after the police said he imprisoned a woman in his apartment for more than a month and tortured her.
The arrest came after police officers, responding to a 911 call on Wednesday morning, found a 26-year-old woman with multiple injuries at Woodhull Medical Center, a police spokesman, Sgt. Brendan Ryan, said. She had arrived at the hospital the day before, the police said, and remained there on Thursday, in intensive care.
Mr. Matthews, the police said, had tied her up, burned her with an iron and a heated screwdriver, and broke several of her teeth by shoving a gun in her mouth. Mr. Matthews is also charged with kidnapping, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, Sergeant Ryan said.
The police say Mr. Matthews held the woman captive from June 29 through Monday. But they would not discuss her whereabouts in the day that passed between the end of her reported imprisonment and her arrival at the hospital; why the police had not been contacted sooner; whether she had been freed or escaped; or how she got to the hospital. They did not identify her except to say she did not live in Brooklyn.
On Thursday morning, two police investigators dressed in white hazardous materials suits could be seen going in and out of the beige, three-story brick building where Mr. Matthews lives on the first floor. The windows to his apartment were covered with a tan curtain.
Ron Pinkney, 47, a neighbor, watched Mr. Matthews’s arrest about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Mr. Pinkney said that he had seen Mr. Matthews try to get away out the back of his apartment and run through an empty lot, but that police officers on the roofs of nearby buildings spotted him. About 10 officers took part in the actual arrest, he said.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” Mr. Pinkney said.
Stanley Valjan, 31, another neighbor, said Mr. Matthews was friendly, recalling a recent invitation from Mr. Matthews to go to a club in Manhattan on Monday, but Mr. Valjan declined.
“Something in my mind just told me not to do it,” Mr. Valjan said, adding that he had seen Mr. Matthews around more frequently in the last three weeks.
A 1998 Mercedes-Benz that neighbors said belonged to Mr. Matthews was parked outside his apartment building, at 263-A Bainbridge Street. Items visible through the car windows included registration documents bearing Mr. Matthews’s name, windshield wiper fluid and packing tape.
Shawn Williams, 28, another neighbor, said he had seen Mr. Matthews at times with a woman, but did not know her name.
“Whenever she was around him she wouldn’t make eye contact with anybody,” Mr. Williams said.
A woman who lives downstairs from Mr. Matthews, in the basement, appeared distraught on Thursday as she watched police investigators swarming the building.
“As a woman, I’m trying to process what happened,” said the woman, who would not provide her name.