Migrant Violence: 2 Arrested, 1 on Lam for Kicking Cop Outside 8th Ave Hotel; 2 Others in Guilty Pleas for Times Sq Brawl

The Strip of Despair—that long, often lawless swath of 8th Avenue from the upper 20s just below Madison Square Garden to at least Times Square—claimed another victim on July 28, and this time the assault victim was a cop.

It was the second major attack against police by migrant suspects in the Times Square area this year.

In the latest incident, an officer from the midtown south precinct house had tried to make a traffic stop to prevent a “two wheeled vehicle” from driving aimlessly through the area a little before 10 p.m. on a busy Saturday night.

But it is not just tourists who flock to the Crossroads of the World these days.

Two men from a nearby migrant center were arrested and charged for assaulting a police officer on Saturday July 28. In a rarity, a female accomplice was also involved and remains at large and is being sought by police.

The two arrested so far include Brian Joseph, 24, and Jose Gonzalez, 19, both of whom gave their address as 700 8th Ave. This address, between W. 44th St. and W. 45th St., formerly that of the luxury hotel Row NYC, has since October 2022 been used a migrant hotel, or in the formal language of Mayor Adams’ administration, a Humanitarian Relief Center.

On this evening, when the male driver of the vehicle, who was driving recklessly in front of this address, was stopped, he tried to flee and aggressively confronted the cops who had detained him.

This hubbub between a suspected perp and Midtown South police attracted the attention of two bystanders—one man, one woman— who together joined the stopped driver and began attacking one of the cops.

The woman among the troika viciously kicked the cop in the right leg, causing pain, bruising and swelling, before fleeing south on foot, down 8th Ave., cops said.

Police describe her “as a female with a large build, light complexion and long black hair. She was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, jean shorts, white sneakers and was carrying a black pocketbook.”

EMS responded to the attack and treated the unnamed officer at the scene.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.

Not the First Time Migrants Have Assaulted Cops

In the now infamous January 27 Times Square brawl, two cops were set upon by a group of migrants as police tried to move them along the sidewalk.

In the ensuing caught-on-video melee, two cops are seen on the ground being kicked and beaten by an angry, chaotic mob.

Police initially arrested five suspects and prosecutors initially let them go without bail.

In the wake of ensuing outrage and video evidence, they and others were rearrested weeks later. Eventually, a total of eight migrant suspects were arrested, with one released without charges.

On June 18, Kelvin Servita-Arocha, 19— an alleged member of the Venezuelan street gang “Tren de Aragua”— pleaded guilty to obstructing governmental administration for kicking a cop’s radio during the Times Square fracas. His sentence is pending.

On July 29, his co-defendant, Darwin Andres Gomez-Izquiel— who two weeks after the Times Square fracas was arrested for his part in a violent robbery of a Macy’s store in Queens— pled guilty to second degree assault.

Gomez-Izquiel, a native of Venezuela who was in the U.S. for about five months at the time of the assault, was sentenced to 364 days in jail.

The cases of the five other Times Square police assault suspects— Yohenry Brito, Wilson Juarez, Yorman Reveron, Ulises Bohorquez and Edgarlis Vegas— remain pending. Reveron had two pending cases for assault and robbery prior to the Times Square battle royale.