Four reported migrants who were recorded on video assaulting two police officers last month in Times Square have not been arrested in Arizona by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the agency has claimed, according to three senior law enforcement officials.
On Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for ICE said the agency had apprehended four people believed to be involved in the attack.
The people in ICE custody do not match the identities or names of those involved in the New York attack, three senior law enforcement officials said.
Law enforcement officials in New York say the four people taken into custody may be in the country illegally and subject to removal but that they are not the four who were charged in connection with the assault.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was informed Tuesday by Homeland Security Investigations “that the four individuals they took into custody were not affiliated with the New York City investigation.”
“To date, we have not received any indication from federal authorities that they have detained anyone related to our case,” the spokesperson said.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Video of the attack drew widespread outrage, including from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has criticized the decision to allow the suspects to be released.
“Get them all and send them back,” she said last week in response to a question about the people who have been arrested in connection with the assaults. “You don’t touch our police officers. You don’t touch anybody.”
The attack occurred about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 27, police said. Officers tried to disperse a disorderly group on 42nd Street when a physical altercation broke out. When officers tried to arrest a person, “multiple unidentified individuals repeatedly kicked and punched the officers in the head and body,” a police spokesperson said. The people then ran away, police said. The officers sustained minor injuries.
Seven people were arrested, all of whom a police spokesperson previously told NBC News are migrants. NBC News has not been able to confirm that or how long they have been in the U.S. At least two gave police addresses that have been used as shelters for newly arrived migrants. The Manhattan district attorney’s office would not comment on the suspects’ immigration statuses. Five of the seven were arraigned and released on their own recognizance: Yorman Reveron, 24; Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, 19; Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19; Wilson Juarez, 21; and Jhoan Boada, 22. Reveron was put on supervised release. They have all been charged with assault on a police officer, gang assault, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Those five defendants face felony charges that carry a penalty of up to seven years, the district attorney’s office has said.
Two other men, Yohenry Brito, 24, and Jandry Barros, 21, were arrested on charges of robbery and felony assault. The district attorney’s office declined to prosecute Barros, citing insufficient evidence. Brito was arraigned Thursday, and his cash bail was set at $15,000. He was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday and pleaded not guilty. He is being detained at a Rikers Island facility.
John Chell, the chief of patrol, said Friday that some of the men who had been released are believed to have fled New York by bus. The district’s attorney’s office said that it was investigating those allegations. The men are not required to stay in New York based on the terms of their release.