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Migrant repeat offenders viciously attack cops during bust for ransacking NYC Target: police
Two migrants with rap sheets were busted for attacking a cop who tried to stop them and four others from shoplifting at an Upper East Side Target, cops and police sources said Tuesday.
nypost.com
Migrant repeat offenders viciously attack cops during bust for ransacking NYC Target: police
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Published April 9, 2024
Updated April 9, 2024, 5:09 p.m. ET
A pair of migrant repeat offenders jumped and pounded an NYPD cop who tried to stop them and their crew from shoplifting at an Upper East Side Target, police and sources said Tuesday.
Yusneiby Machado, 23, and Brayan Freites, 21, were among the group of six migrants who allegedly yanked $82 in items off displays inside the store on Third Avenue near East 70th Street on April 2, the sources said.
They left a trail of destruction as they grabbed a backpack from a shelf, cut off the security tag and then and moved “from aisle to aisle” stuffing it with goods — including a gaming light, tools and assorted grub such as Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Doritos, strawberries and bottled waters, according to sources and a criminal complaint.
5 Yusneiby Machado (left) and Brayan Freites allegedly wrestled with an officer while resisting arrest. Obtained by NY Post
When responding cops from the NYPD’s 19th Precinct stopped the crew, all from Venezuela, in their tracks, Machado and Freitas allegedly wrestled, shoved, slapped and pushed them in an attempt to resist, according to the sources.
The wild struggle left one officer with swelling, redness and pain on his left arm, cops said.
He was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.
Another suspect — who has not been caught — tried to throw rocks at the officers, but they were not struck, the sources said.
Both Machado and Freites were charged with robbery, assault, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, criminal possession of stolen property, disorderly conduct and harassment, cops said.
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They were arraigned before Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Wiener — and treated with kid gloves.
Machado was cut loose without bail under supervised release, despite a request from prosecutors that she be held on $10,000 bail.
Prosecutors asked that Freites be held on $10,000 bail or a $30,000 bond, and Wiener ordered him held on $3,000 bail or a $9,000 bond.
He was still at Rikers Island on Tuesday.
Their alleged partners in crime, Sebastian Jaramillio, 22, Michael Sanchez, 31, and Henry Zambrano, 19, were also arrested and charged by cops with robbery and disorderly conduct, police said.
5 Two migrants were arrested for attacking a cop while attempting to rob a Manhattan Target on April 2, 2024. G.N.Miller/NYPost
All three — who lived at the Ward’s Island shelter, per sources — were later arraigned on petty larceny and possession of stolen property charges and released without bail.
It is not clear if they returned to the shelter after they were released.
Both of the accused attackers have rap sheets, with sources saying Machado — pictured in a mugshot with a broken heart tattoo on her neck — was busted Jan. 18 for trespassing at a migrant shelter she’d been discharged from.
She was also charged with assault on Sunday for a March 28 incident in which she allegedly scratched a 34-year-old woman during an argument on East 124th Street, the sources said.
Freites was charged with several incidents after being arrested at the Target, including two trespassing incidents from January 2023 for refusing to leave a migrant shelter after being kicked out, according to the sources.
He was also charged in another shoplifting case from Dec. 21, 2023 in which he allegedly made off with $286 worth of merchandise from a Richmond Hill department store, sources said.
5 Sebastian Jaramillo was among the other migrants charged in the robbery. Obtained by NY Post
5 Michael Sanchez was charged with robbery and disorderly conduct. Obtained by NY Post
5 Henry Zambrano was also allegedly involved in the robbery scheme. Obtained by NY Post
Target workers told The Post on Tuesday that some of their colleagues had witnessed the group grabbing items and stuffing them in a bookbag — and that cops were only trying to escort the suspected shoplifters out when they were attacked.
“One of them shoved the cop and it was going back and forth with them and the cops,” one employee said.
A street vendor named Terrence, who peddles his wares outside the department store, said roving gangs of migrants have become a regular nuisance on the block.
“They are walking in groups and doing their stuff in groups,” he said. “They are moving in a gang-life behavior.
“I came here as an immigrant,” he added. “I didn’t behave like that. I washed windows. I never stole anything. I don’t agree with that. I got a business two and they steal from me — socks, caps, long john sets.”
Speaking with “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban acknowledged that migrant crime in the Big Apple can stoke fear among locals — but called it a case of “perception versus reality.”
“The NYPD understand that people come to New York City to build a better life for themselves and their families,” Caban told the network. “They, themselves, are the American dream.
“But having said that, if you commit a crime in New York City, if you break the law, we will hold you accountable,” he said. “Right now, we do have some pockets of migrant crime.”
The target attack on the cop follows a mob assault on two officers in Times Square in January that shocked the city.
“No job is routine, no call for service is routine,” Deputy Inspector Neil Zuber, commanding officer of the NYPD’s 19th Precinct, told neighbors who gathered later that night for the precinct’s community council meeting, according to the Upper East Site.
“Every time these officers respond, and they’re confronted with a crime, they’re gonna do everything they can to make that arrest.”