Two armed suspects – believed to be Venezuelan migrants – carjacked an off-duty New York Police Department officer on Friday night, according to a new report.
Sources told the New York Post that the two armed men approached the off-duty NYPD officer around 11:30 p.m. on Friday at West 146 Street and Bradhurst Avenue in Harlem. One of the suspects was reportedly brandishing a fully automatic pistol as the men walked up to the vehicle.
The off-duty NYPD officer was allegedly sitting inside his 2020 BMW when the suspects purportedly opened the car door, knocked a gun out of the cop’s hands, and demanded he turn over the keys to the vehicle.
The suspects successfully carjacked the off-duty officer’s vehicle and fled the crime scene.
However, the officer’s iPad was inside the vehicle at the time of the carjacking. Investigators used the device to locate the stolen car, which was abandoned approximately less than a mile away, sources said.
Authorities combed the immediate area and found the two suspects, who allegedly had their firearms drawn when confronted by police.
The two men did not have any identification on them, but claimed to be Jomar Crespo, 21, and Jose Rivera, 20, of Waterbury, Connecticut, according to the Post.
The suspects had tattoos believed to be associated with a Venezuelan gang, the report read.
Police recovered two guns.
The two suspects were both charged with robbery, grand theft auto, possession of a machine gun, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of stolen property, making rapid-fire modifications to a gun, and unlawful possession of an ammo feed device.
This is the second time this month that NYPD officers have been attacked by suspects believed to be migrants from Venezuela.
In the early hours of June 3, a suspect shot an NYPD officer in the chest and another cop in the leg after they attempted to stop his moped in Queens.
The shooting suspect – 19-year-old Bernardo Castro Mata – illegally entered the U.S. through the southern border of Eagle Pass, Texas, in July 2023, the New York Post reported. He had been living at a migrant shelter in East Elmhurst.
Castro Mata was charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and faces up to 80 years in prison for both charges.
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