A man with a stick attacked four homeless people in downtown Miami early Thursday morning, killing two and injuring two others in what the police called a horrible “display of unprovoked violence.”

The man was seen attacking the people with a stick at 6 a.m., the Miami Police Department said in a statement. The police responded soon after calls came in and saw a man who matched the description that had been given. He ran off but was arrested after a brief foot chase, the police said.

Two of the homeless people died at the scene of the attack. The two people who were injured were taken to a nearby trauma center for treatment, the police said. Their conditions were not available.

The authorities did not immediately release the name of the man who was arrested, who is in his 30s. They said that they would disclose his identity and the charges he faces once the charges had been confirmed. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, the police said.

The suspect does not have an arrest history in Miami, but he has had “minor criminal run-ins with the police” in New York, Manuel A. Morales, the chief of police for the Miami Police Department, said at a news conference on Thursday. The man’s place of residence was not immediately clear.

“This is a horrible incident,” Chief Morales said.

The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, the county’s leading homeless outreach group, said in a statement that it was grieving the “senseless loss of these lives.” and thanked the police for their swift response.