A teenage Venezuelan illegal immigrant has been arrested for allegedly shooting two New York Police Department officers after they attempted to stop him while he was riding a scooter.
The two officers were patrolling the 115th precinct to address enduring robberies in the area involving perpetrators on mopeds and scooters when they spotted 19-year-old Bernardo Raul Castro-Mata driving a moped the wrong way down a street at 89th Street and 23rd Avenue in Elmhurst at about 1:40 a.m.
When the police attempted to pull the young man over, he fled on foot, with the two young officers chasing him on foot for several blocks. During the chase, Mr. Castro-Mata produced an illegal firearm, firing multiple rounds at the officers, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, during a Monday press conference.
Officer Christopher Abreu, 26, was shot in the leg, while his partner, Richard Yarusso, also 26, took a hit to his bulletproof vest, which effectively saved his life.
During the fire exchange, the suspect was also hit in the ankle. Once the suspect had been taken out, Mr. Yarusso applied a tourniquet to his partner’s leg to stop the bleeding.
The two junior officers—who joined the force two and five years ago—were released from the hospital several hours after the ordeal. As Mr. Yarusso rolled his partner, Mr. Abreu, out in a wheelchair, they were greeted with applause from colleagues and bystanders.
“This could have gone a very different way,” Mr. Caban said at the press conference. “It’s only by the grace of God that we’re not here talking about a terrible tragedy.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams showed the crowd Mr. Yarusso’s bulletproof vest.
“This is a bullet hole,” he said. “Because of this vest, a young police officer’s going home,” referring to the incident as a “senseless act of violence,” bespeaking “a total disregard for life.”
The mayor praised the officers for their discipline and professionalism.
“This is what we’re fighting every day,” a stern and somber-looking mayor told the press. “This department has removed over 15,000 illegal guns off our streets in the hands of dangerous people. And everyday New Yorkers are not wearing this,” he said, glancing at the officer’s vest.
According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, the moped Mr. Castro-Mata was driving was unregistered. While the young man has no prior arrests in New York City, police suspect him to be involved with a gang that has committed at least 80 motorized robberies across the city this year, not to mention hundreds of other incidents.
“We’re looking at him for several other robbery patterns in the Queens area where he does have other co-defendants,” Mr. Kenny said.
Police are hoping his arrest will be a breakthrough in the investigation into the robbery spree.
According to police, Mr. Castro-Mata illegally entered the U.S. in July last year through Eagle Pass, Texas. He has been residing at a migrant shelter on Ditmars Boulevard, not far from the shooting. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens for surgery and is in stable condition.
