A migrant accused of shooting and wounding two NYPD cops in Queens told authorities firing at police was “common practice” back home in Venezuela — although he claimed he didn’t mean to open fire, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, who prosecutors say shot the officers after being caught zipping the wrong way down a one-way Queens street on a scooter back on June 3, admitted to authorities he is a member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
While he said it wasn’t a big deal for gang members and police in his native country to swap shots, he claims his gun just “went off” when Officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu tried to stop him on 82nd St. near 23rd Ave. in East Elmhurst, prosecutors said.
“My friend Jose might have given me a bag with a gun in it and asked me to keep it for him,” the 20-year-old Castro Mata, a delivery man for Door Dash, told investigators. “I knew there was a gun in the bag. When the cops stopped me, I ran because I was scared. I stopped and took out the gun to show the officer, and the round went off.”
“I did not pull the trigger,” he added. “The gun was ready when my friend gave it to me. The gun went off once.”
Castro Mata’s claims were recounted in Queens Supreme Criminal Court Wednesday, where he was arraigned on a 20-count indictment of attempted murder and other charges. If found guilty, he could spend the next 80 years in prison.
Judge Kenneth Holder ordered Castro Mata held without bail at the close of the proceeding. More than 100 cops sat in the gallery as the charges were read, all glaring at Castro Mata, who sat quietly in a wheelchair.
When cops approached Castro Mata, the migrant pulled the gun from a crossbody bag and shot one cop in the stomach and the other in the upper right thigh, Queens Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reilly said.
The officers fired back, striking Castro Mata in the ankle. He only dropped the gun after he had been wounded Reilly said.
When he was being questioned at the hospital, Castro Mata said he had come to the United States through Eagle Pass, Texas. He lived in a shelter in Queens as Tren de Aragua recruited him to do robberies, he said.
“It’s common practice for Tren de Aragua gang members to shoot at police because Venezuelan police officers shoot at gang members for minor infractions,” Castro Mata told NYPD investigators, according to prosecutors. “Venezuelan police officers get shot often in my home country because criminals feel there is a chance of getting away.”
Gang members get tattoos of the number 23 and sports stars to show their “loyalty to the gang,” he said. Tren de Aragua is the largest criminal organization in Venezuela, with over 5,000 members. Members have been linked to human trafficking, extortion, drug crimes and murder.
“Tren de Aragua members smuggle firearms into city shelters inside food delivery packages,” Castro Mato told authorities. “That way they don’t have to go through the metal detector.”
Officers Yarusso and Abreu were investigating a robbery pattern involving crooks on mopeds and scooters when they spotted Castro Mata, prosecutors said.
“These police officers were just doing a traffic stop,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said at the courthouse Wednesday. “[Castro Mata] was driving up the wrong way on a one-way street. He did not have a helmet. It is one of the dangers of unregistered scooters – if they had not caught him, there would be no way to find him.”
“An attempt on the lives of two police officers simply making a traffic stop should offend every New Yorker,” Katz added.
Speaking outside court, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry called Castro Mata “a dangerous individual [who] wasn’t afraid to shoot at New York City police officers because he thought he was going to get away with it.”
“Not in this country,” Hendry added. “We need anyone who attacks a police officer prosecuted to the fullest extent, and then they need to be deported.”