A teenage Venezuelan immigrant who opened fire on two NYPD officers who tried to stop him on a scooter said he was “hired” by a gang to cause chaos in America. Bernardo Raul Castro-Mata, 19, was riding an unregistered motorcycle the wrong way down a one-way street in Queens early Monday morning when police approached him.
The immigrant responded by firing at the officers with an unlicensed weapon, striking one officer in the leg and wounding another who was wearing a bulletproof vest. The man fled the scene on foot around 1:40 a.m., according to the NYPD. Mata, who entered the U.S. illegally through Eagle Pass, Texas, last July, told police he was a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a law enforcement source told the New York Post.
The robbery group’s “coordinator” is known to provide its members with mopeds to use in robberies, including cell phone thefts.
The notorious gang has been dubbed the “Invasion Crime Squad” by U.S. lawmakers, and one of its members is suspected in the brutal murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Mata is considered a gang member based on his social media posts and a distinctive tattoo of a watch attached to an anchor on his arm, which sources say is associated with the group.
Sources told the New York Post that Mata was initially staying with three others at a shelter on Ditmars Boulevard in Queens, but has not been living there since May 15.
Officers were pursuing Mata after noticing him riding his scooter through a crosswalk filled with pedestrians, without a helmet, driving the wrong way and without a license plate, prosecutors said.
The New York Police Department said officers pursued him “several blocks” after he abandoned his scooter and hopped on a motorcycle.
A third officer, Officer Sergeant Nicholas Condos, joined the pursuit when Mata pulled his gun, shooting and killing Officers Christopher Abreu and Richard Yarusso, both 26. The murder weapon he used was recovered at the scene.
Law enforcement officials confirmed Wednesday that the .380-caliber Hi-Point pistol belonged to a woman who had purchased the weapon in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2017. She said she did not know it had been stolen.
The teenager was shot in the ankle during the violent altercation. He underwent surgery early Monday morning at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens.
Photos show Mata looking shocked as paramedics carry him on a stretcher to an ambulance with his arms tied behind his back.
In another photo, three police officers can be seen carrying him away by grabbing his arms and legs, screaming. An abandoned scooter was also spotted at the scene during the massacre.
Mata was arrested from the hospital on two counts of attempted murder and other charges related to the shooting.
Prior to the incident, police discovered Mata was suspected of being involved in several scooter thefts in the Big Apple.
Sources said the immigrant teen is suspected of being involved in a May 22 robbery in Nassau County in which a female victim sustained a gunshot wound.
During the standoff in Hempstead, a woman was shot in the arm while trying to fight off an assailant. Mata reportedly told police he was involved in the crime.
Sources said police tracked the AirPods the woman had stolen and found them at the home Mata originally shared with two suspected accomplices.
Investigators believe other suspects may have fled to Texas, officials said.
Police have not charged the 19-year-old with robbery.
According to InSight Crime, “US lawmakers recently called on President Joe Biden to declare Tren de Aragua a transnational criminal organization.”
The lawmakers said the Venezuelan gang is spreading “brutality and chaos” across the US. “The invasion of a criminal army.”
Recent murders that have attracted national attention have also been linked to Tren de Aragua.
In February, Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University, was bludgeoned to death by 26-year-old Jose Antonia Ibarra while jogging on the Athens campus. According to an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press, 4,444 hours after Riley’s murder, Athens homicide investigators pulled up surveillance camera photos of a suspect wearing a distinctive Adidas cap.
That eventually led them to an off-campus apartment complex, where they searched the grounds and nearby trash cans and began gathering details about Ibarra.
Ibarra shares an apartment with his brother, Diego Ibarra, and is accused of possessing a counterfeit green card after he surrendered it to police during a suspect search.
Federal authorities discovered Diego had ties to a Venezuela-based gang after finding photos online of him displaying gang hand signs and identifying tattoos, including stars, clocks, trains, weapons and crowns.
Further images of him holding a firearm were found online, despite illegal immigrants being prohibited from possessing firearms in the United States.
Diego entered the U.S. illegally in April 2023 and was arrested five months later after driving 80 mph in a 40 mph zone without a license or insurance and drinking a can of Bud Light.
The brothers are accused of stealing more than $200 from an Athens Walmart on Oct. 27.
Diego then allegedly returned on December 8th to steal more merchandise, for which he was banned from the store for two years.
On May 7th, Ibarra was indicted on ten charges by a Georgia grand jury.
A recent high-profile report found that 350,000 immigrants who entered the United States illegally have had their immigration cases dismissed, setting them free without a verdict on their eligibility.
Kelly Doyle, senior counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), circulated a memo in 2022 instructing prosecutors to dismiss cases involving immigrants who do not pose a threat to national security, the New York Post first reported.
As a result, about 103,000 immigrants have had their cases dismissed this year, allowing them to freely enter the United States without an immigration judge ruling on the merits of their asylum claims.
In the second half of 2023, the number of dismissed cases jumped to 149,000. 4,444 4,444 The report said that 114,000 cases have been dismissed without adjudication so far in fiscal year 2024.