Violence has been so bad at a New York City immigrant shelter that authorities are installing security cameras and considering metal detectors as police grapple with a “flood of knives — just wait until they have guns,” law enforcement officials and sources said.
The latest bloodshed includes a fatal stabbing on Jan. 7 and a separate mass, knife-wielding brawl on Thursday — both at a tent city shelter on Randall’s Island.
“They don’t use metal detectors. … If so, the knife would not have happened,” a security guard at the site told The Post on Friday, noting that shelter arrivals are not screened beyond scanning their IDs.
“Everyone can have a knife, can have something. So it’s not a good environment,” he said.
“Security is not good. It is not safe. If you tell me it’s safe, it’s not. We tried to do our best, but we lost,” he said.
Jose Chica, 42, who had just arrived from Ecuador, said the situation at the shelter was “dangerous.
“There are many problems here. I’m not messing with anyone. Nobody.”
Security cameras were in the process of being installed at the temporary shelter Friday morning, with ongoing talks about adding metal detectors to further increase security there and at other sites — as the city grapples with a massive influx of South and Central American migrants, more than 150,000 in all. , which has arrived in New York since spring 2022.
A law enforcement source told The Post on Friday that it’s time to learn about security measures at immigration facilities, and that failure to do so endangers public safety.
An immigrant was taken into police custody Friday morning outside the tent city of Randall’s Island for allegedly assaulting his partner, an asylum seeker told The Post. J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
“We cannot continue on this path to take hundreds and hundreds of people without establishing such security measures. We have to do this for the sake of staff, immigrants and New Yorkers in general,” the source said.
“We cannot continue to have thousands of people gathering under restricted conditions without any metal detectors or cameras. Now we’re dealing with an influx of knives — just wait until they get their hands on guns.”
The heightened security measures came after a pair of knife attacks this month, including a fatal stabbing on Jan. 7 on Randall’s Island that police said stemmed from a fight over a woman.
The 24-year-old victim was brutally attacked at the shelter by four men after he spoke to one of the man’s girlfriends, sources said. One of the attackers pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the neck and chest. The victim was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Migrants lined up outside a reception center on Hall Street in Brooklyn Friday. Paul Martinka
Asylum seekers told The Post at the time that crime had spiked as groups of migrants had splintered, splitting into armed “camps” based on their ethnic groups and countries of origin.
“Everybody has a knife,” immigrant Mauricio Pinto said after the fatal stabbing.
The simmering violence has erupted into all-out brawls on more than one occasion, most recently on Thursday evening when two feuding groups of migrants – armed with knives and stones – began brawling inside a shelter before the conflict spilled onto the streets, sources said.
A 24-year-old man was stabbed during the commotion. He was taken by EMTs to Harlem Hospital and listed in stable condition. The attacker was still at large as of late Friday afternoon, police said. Eighteen people were arrested after the blast.
The incident echoed another gang fight on January 6, when violence erupted outside Manhattan’s East Village immigration center after someone tried to cut through a line of about 400 asylum seekers and allegedly spilled his coffee on others in line.
One man punched the line cutter and fell to the ground in the ensuing fight, witnesses said.
At least two NYPD officers were injured in the scuffle, and two men were arrested.
Security guards have been struggling against a rising tide of violence at immigrant sanctuaries including Randall’s Island, which has been the scene of major fights and two recent stabbings, one of which was fatal. Peter Gerber
The high tension and grim conditions have led to at least one incident of domestic violence on Randall’s Island as well. An immigrant was accused of beating his partner and was arrested Friday morning.
Even beyond the climate of unbridled violence, the deteriorating conditions on Randall’s Island appear to be having a frightening effect on the health of its transient residents.
On Friday afternoon, a teenage girl had a seizure in one of the small tents set up outside the shelter for those who had been told to find another home. A migrant carried him in his arms, desperately trying to find help as his legs trembled and jerked.
Police at the scene got him into a van and calmed him down before EMS arrived about 20 minutes later.
“They don’t have beds there. They stay here because it’s better than being on the streets,” one migrant told reporters of those in ad-hoc tents, adding that the women with seizures sometimes jumped over fences to use the shelter’s bathroom. to stay warm.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
