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NYPD arrests teen suspected in Times Square brawl and rearrests another
By
Brittany Kriegstein
and
Samantha Max
Published Feb 14, 2024
Modified Feb 14, 2024
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NYPD Crime Stoppers
By
Brittany Kriegstein
and
Samantha Max
Published Feb 14, 2024
Modified Feb 14, 2024
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Police made new arrests on Tuesday and Wednesday in connection with a group assault on two NYPD officers in Times Square last month — and another man who had already been arrested for his alleged role in the incident was rearrested on Wednesday on separate shoplifting charges, officials said.
A 17-year-old was arrested in the Bronx on Tuesday on assault charges in connection with the Jan. 27 brawl, police said. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday, when a judge will decide whether to release him, set bail or hold him in custody.
Police arrested another person, Ulises Bohorquez, 21, on Wednesday morning and charged him with assault on a police officer. The name of the 17-year-old was not released.
The teen and Bohorquez join five other people who have already been arrested and charged in connection with the melee, which was caught on camera. The incident went viral, sparking outrage and misinformation after law enforcement officials identified the suspects as migrants.
Video footage released by prosecutors shows police trying to move the men down the block in Times Square and all the men complying — but 24-year-old Yohenry Brito lagsbehind briefly. Police pushed him up against the wall and Brito tries to escape when the fight breaks out.
Police, pundits and politicians have called for the men involved to be deported and criticized New York’s “sanctuary city” status.
In a new wrinkle to the already complex saga, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said two others allegedly involved in the attack on police — Kelvin Servita Arocha and Wilson Juarez — were taken into federal immigration custody on Wednesday after officials found them in the same apartment as the 17-year-old during his arrest.
Neither Arocha nor Juarez is accused of hitting or kicking police, according to the DA’s office. Prosecutors say Arocha kicked a police radio and Juarez watched the incident from a distance, then gave Brito his jacket. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ICE’s involvement in an NYPD case raises questions about potential collaboration, but police said on Wednesday that there was no sharing of information.
An NYPD spokesperson said the department does not cooperate with ICE and did not inform the federal agency about its plans to arrest the 17-year-old migrant. ICE may have identified the other two migrants after reviewing their arrest history in New York City and matching their fingerprints, the spokesperson said.
Police have been raising alarms about the attack since it occurred. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said a “wave of migrant crime” was washing over the city, but police have not been able to substantiate that claim with statistics.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry tweeted a wanted flier on Wednesday morning, saying that another of the alleged Jan. 27 attackers — Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel, who had been arrested and released in January — was now accused of acting as a lookout for a group suspected of shoplifting at a Macy’s on Queens Boulevard.
Gomez-Izquiel, 19, was rearrested in Queens on Wednesday morning for his alleged involvement in the shoplifting.
“I’m dismayed that he got rearrested on robbery charges, but we’ll see how these allegations play out,” said Gomez-Izquiel’s lawyer Mark MacRon, who added that he hadn’t yet heard about the latest arrest when reached by phone. “I’m not going to concede that he was involved in these things… I have to see more information.”
Gomez-Izquiel was released last month after his initial arrest for the assault of the two police officers. He was one of seven people indicted by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg last week for their roles in the assault.
Body camera footage released by the DA’s office shows the two police officers attempting to move the group of young men away from the front of the Candler Building near Times Square, where they had been congregating.
All of the men complied, the video shows, but 24-year-old Yohenry Brito lagged behind to reach into a stroller belonging to one of the men, who was carrying a baby. The officers pushed him up against a wall as Brito asked aloud in Spanish why they’d stopped him.
According to a criminal complaint, Brito swung his arms and tensed up, causing him and the officers to fall to the ground. As Brito tried to get away, video shows some members of the group trying to pull the officers away as well as kicking and swinging at them. One person is accused of kicking an officer’s police radio and another is accused of changing clothing with Brito to avoid detection.
Only Brito was kept in custody. He faces a range of charges including two counts of second-degree assault, one count of obstructing governmental administration in the second degree, one count of tampering with physical evidence and one count of hindering prosecution.
Besides Gomez-Izquiel, three other men were released shortly after the incident, sparking criticism from police and some elected officials. NYPD officials said in interviews that the four released after their arrest had fled the state on a bus, but prosecutors and defense attorneys for some of the men have denied those claims. At least three of them have since been located in New York City.
The DA has also defended his office’s decision not to request bail for all the men. At a press conference last week, Bragg said prosecutors did not immediately ask a judge to keep them in jail, because they were still investigating what happened and wanted to ensure that no one who wasn’t actually involved was incarcerated on Rikers Island. The judge could have set bail anyway, because all the defendants faced charges that were serious enough under New York law, but chose not to.
Five defendants are now in law enforcement custody, according to the DA’s office.
Officials in Bragg’s office said a total of 11 people were involved in the assault, contrary to the NYPD's initial estimate of 14.
Bahar Ostadan contributed reporting.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Tagged
new york city
Times Square
public safety
manhattan
Asylum Seekers
nypd
Alvin Bragg
Brittany Kriegstein
Brittany Kriegstein covers all breaking news around New York City, with a focus on crime and gun violence. Got a tip? Email Brittany at [email protected].
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Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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