NEW YORK — A 17-year-old boy stopped by cops for jumping a turnstile at a Brooklyn subway stop Thursday has been arrested in connection with a Times Square stabbing inspired by a TikTok trend, police said.

After he was caught, the teen admitted that he zeroed in on Leonides Baez, 39, outside of Burger & Lobster restaurant on Monday because he was following a “mess-with-a-crack-head” challenge on TikTok, a police source said.

Baez was sleeping on the sidewalk when the teen approached and started antagonizing him, the source said.

The teen was caught jumping a turnstile at the Stillwell Ave. station in Coney Island just after midnight Thursday. Cops quickly realized he was wanted for the Times Square stabbing.

Police recovered a scalpel from the teen, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it was the murder weapon.

The teen, whose name was not released by the NYPD because he is underage, was charged with murder and weapons possession for the 11:30 p.m. slaying on W. 43rd St. near Seventh Ave.

Baez was stabbed him in the face, torso, and back, cops said. The teen is not believed to have recorded the slaying, police sources say.

Medics rushed Baez to Bellevue Hospital but he could not be saved. He lived in Worcester, Mass., according to cops.

His sister described Baez, who grew up in Worcester, Mass., as a free-spirited “wanderer” who was homeless by choice.

“He was such a loving person,” the sister, who declined to give her name, said of her free-spirited brother in an exclusive interview. “He was loved by everybody.”

The attackers ran off east on W. 43rd St. toward Bryant Park. Cops are still looking for two accomplices but believe the teen is the stabber.

“Why? What was the point?” the sister said of the slaying. “Were you that bored that you had to bother somebody? You getting brownie points to dehumanize somebody?”

The teen’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Thursday.

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