By Steve Neavling
An off-duty CBP agent was shot in the face and arm during an attempted robbery late Saturday night in New York City’s Riverside Park, police said.
The agent, who has not been named, was sitting near the water in the Manhattan park when two men pulled up on a scooter, NBC News reports. One of them got off, walked up from behind, and pulled a gun, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The CBP agent, realizing he was being robbed, drew his own weapon, and both exchanged fire.
The agent was hospitalized, and his condition has not been released. Mayor Eric Adams said he visited the officer and his family at the hospital.
Police say the suspects are two undocumented immigrants from the Dominican Republic. One of them, 21-year-old Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, was identified as the shooter. He later showed up at Bronx Care Hospital with gunshot wounds to his groin and leg, consistent with security video of the incident, Tisch said. Mora was placed in police custody following surgery.
The second suspect, Christian Aybar-Berroa, was also arrested, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday. She said Aybar-Berroa entered the U.S. in 2022 and was ordered removed by an immigration judge a year later.
NYPD officials said the attempted robbery appeared random and not connected to the agent’s job.
Tisch said Mora had four previous arrests in New York City, including two for domestic violence. He also had an active warrant for skipping court, and was wanted in connection with a December robbery and January stabbing.
“In less than one year, he has inflicted violence in our city,” Adams said Sunday. “And once he is charged for last night’s crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet.”
Former President Donald Trump weighed in Sunday on Truth Social, calling Mora an “Illegal Alien Monster” and accusing Democrats of flooding the country “with Criminal Invaders.” Noem echoed the sentiment on X, blaming “open border policies” and “sanctuary city protections.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Todd Lyons also blamed federal and local policies, calling the suspects “habitual criminals who weren’t even supposed to be in the United States.”
But despite political rhetoric, data shows no evidence of a migrant crime wave. A 2020 study of Texas crime statistics found that undocumented immigrants had significantly lower felony arrest rates than both legal immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.
Internal ICE data obtained by NBC News showed that nearly half of people in immigration detention as of May hadn’t been charged with or convicted of a crime.
