A 29-year-old man who police believed to be a New York murder suspect briefly held a woman and two teen-agers hostage yesterday afternoon in an East Baltimore rowhouse before surrendering.

The hostages were not injured and officers did not find a weapon on the man or in the house in the 500 block of N. Streeper St., said Officer Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a police spokesman.

Officers were sent to the house about 3:30 p.m. on a tip that a man wanted for murder, and possibly armed, was sitting on the front steps. When they arrived, a man --ed into the house and refused to open the door, Officer Weinhold said.

A negotiator took about 20 minutes to talk the man out the house.