A New York City Parks Department employee is in major trouble after authorities accused him of going on a fatal fit of rage toward a group of Venezuelan migrants.
As of August, over 200,000 migrants are reported to have arrived in New York City from South America, majority of them being refugees who fled from Venezuela upon the rise in crime and political chaos, per The New York Times. Unfortunately, with the city’s overpopulation and unlivable wages, many of these migrants are taking shelter in the subways or under scaffolding on the sidewalks.
However, when 23-year-old Elijah Mitchell showed up to clean the Steuben Playground off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on July 18, he encountered a group of migrants who set up shelter there in tents, per The New York Post. Police said Mitchell grew enraged and began yelling at the migrants. One of them confronted Mitchell and the two began arguing. Police said the spout resulted in Mitchell going to his car and coming back to the scene to flash his gun. Luckily, Mitchell’s coworkers pulled him away before he pulled the trigger, police said.
However, three days later, police say Mitchell returned to the park in the evening to get his lick back. Prosecutors say he went up to the Venezuelan man he’d argued with and shot him multiple times. The victim was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
Read what happened from The New York Post:
Mitchell was indicted on charges of second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing as a hate crime and menacing.
He pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Wednesday and was held on bail of $350,000 cash or $2.5 million bond. He is due back in court on Oct. 23. Mitchell was suspended from the Parks Department on July 30.
The Post reports that Mitchell told detectives the migrants were aggressive toward him, threatening him with weapons. However, upon his arrest, he went on an offensive anti-migrant tirade to detectives exposing why he really had beef with them.
“I don’t have time to let a migrant f-ck up what I got going on in my life,” he said according to court documents. “The government let them come in here and they get $1,500 a month. They get free money a month. You work for your money, right? Y’all were born here. This is y’all country. This is our country.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez wasn’t going for any of that, writing in a statement that he believes Mitchell’s actions were “premeditated” and “cold-blooded.” Mitchell is due back in court Oct. 23.