NEW YORK (AP) — A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at a park in New York City, law enforcement officials said Monday.
Christhian Aybar Berroa is the alleged getaway driver in the apparent robbery-gone-wrong late Saturday night, according to the city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch. He is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan later Monday.
The officer was wounded in the face and arm while the alleged shooter, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, was hit before fleeing, police said. He was taken into custody Sunday after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds to the groin and leg.
Authorities say both suspects entered the country illegally from the Dominican Republic and have extensive criminal histories in their short time in the U.S.
The 42-year-old customs officer, who was not in uniform, had been sitting with a woman in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge in upper Manhattan when two men approached on a moped, according to police. When he realized he was being robbed, the officer drew his service weapon and both he and one of the suspects fired at each other.
The officer, who has not been identified by authorities, is recovering in a hospital and is expected to survive, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a separate announcement Monday.
He works for Customs and Border Protection, whose officers dress in blue and are stationed at airports and land crossings. Green-uniformed Border Patrol agents patrol mountains and deserts for illegal crossings.
No lawyers were listed for Aybar Berroa or Mora Nunez on the federal court case database and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan didn’t immediately comment.
The police commissioner said Aybar Berroa arrived in 2022 and he has been arrested eight times for grand larceny and other crimes, and is a suspect in at least four other cases.
The head of Homeland Security said he was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in 2023, but immigration detainers were ignored. She blamed New York City authorities for releasing him before federal officials could take custody.
“There’s absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City,” Noem told reporters.
New York and other cities have longstanding laws and policies that limit or restrict local government involvement in federal immigration matters. New York Democrats also passed a 2019 law abolishing pretrial incarceration for most nonviolent offenses.
Police say 21-year-old Mora Nunez, the suspected shooter, entered the country illegally in 2023 and had two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York. He is wanted in New York to face accusations of robbery and felony assault, and in Massachusetts over a stolen weapons case.
Mayor Eric Adams, at a separate press conference, distanced himself from the so-called sanctuary city policies that Noem and other federal officials blamed for the shooting.
“I’ve always been clear: stop the revolving door system,” said the former police captain, who has long called for increased cooperation between city police and federal immigration authorities. “Go after the dangerous migrants and asylum seekers.”
At the same time, Adams said the city’s sanctuary policies were enacted in order to encourage otherwise law-abiding immigrants to seek police help or medical care without fear of being deported.
Adams issued an executive order earlier this year allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to maintain office space at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
That plan, a priority for President Donald Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, was blocked by a state judge last month.
The City Council had sued, casting it as a concerning potential case of Adams changing city policy in return for Trump’s Justice Department dropping corruption charges against him.
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