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A group of Venezuelan migrants with prior arrests has been busted for allegedly raiding a New York City Target store and then attacking police officers – the latest in a wave of migrant crimes sweeping the Big Apple.
Many of them, however, are back out on the streets after being cut loose without bail.
Six migrants allegedly plucked various items from the shelves of the Upper East Side store and loaded them into a stolen backpack before being confronted by responding police on April 2 at around 6:50 p.m., according to a criminal complaint viewed by Fox News Digital.
Two of the suspects, Brayan Freites, 21, and Yusneiby Machado, 23, then allegedly attacked the officers while resisting arrest.
The legal status of the group was unknown at the time of this report.
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Migrants who allegedly robbed a Target store, top from left, Yusneiby Machado, Brayan Freites, and Sebastian Jaramillo, and bottom from left, Michael Sanchez and Henry Zambrano. (New York Post and Google Maps)
According to the complaint, Freites shoved one of the officers who was trying to handcuff him, then yelled in Spanish at Machado, his female accomplice, to flee the scene. That’s when Machado placed herself in between the pair and struck the officer in the head with her hand, the complaint reads.
As the struggle spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of the Target, another suspect, who is still at large, threw rocks at responding officers but missed, according to the complaint.
Both Machado and Freites were taken into custody and were charged with robbery, assault, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, criminal possession of stolen property, disorderly conduct and harassment, the New York Post reports, citing police.
Machado was cut looseunder supervised release without bail despite a request from prosecutors that she be held on $10,000 bail, prosecutors tell Fox News Digital. Prosecutors requested that Freites be held on $10,000 bail or a $30,000 bond, and Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Jay Wiener ordered him held on $3,000 bail or a $9,000 bond.
One officer was hospitalized and treated for “substantial pain” and a sprained wrist.
VideoWOMAN ARRESTED FOR MIGRANT ATTACK ON NYPD, 2 SUSPECTS STILL AT LARGE
Five migrants were arrested in total, while a sixth has yet to be apprehended.
Three other migrants – Sebastian Jaramillio, 22, Michael Sanchez, 31, and Henry Zambrano, 19 – were also arrested and charged with robbery and disorderly conduct, the Post reports, citing police. They were later arraigned on petit larceny and possession of stolen property charges and released without bail. All three lived at the Ward’s Island shelter, per Post sources.
The report adds that the two suspects charged with assault stand accused of previous crimes with Machado – pictured in a mugshot with a broken heart tattoo on her neck – being busted on Jan. 18 for trespassing at a migrant shelter she had been discharged from.
Machado was also charged with assault for an incident last month in which she allegedly scratched a 34-year-old woman during an argument on East 124th Street, Post sources say.
The Target store on the Upper East Side that police say the group robbed. (Google Maps)
After being arrested at the Target, Freites was charged with several other incidents, including for trespassing in January for refusing to leave a migrant shelter after being booted out, and for shoplifting in December, Post sources say.
Jaramillo, meanwhile, was charged with assault in October for allegedly punching a 42-year-old man in the face at Grand Central Terminal while he was arrested for petit theft the following month and then booked for grand larceny in March.
Sanchez also has three separate petit larceny arrests and two separate robbery charges in New York City.
Hundreds of migrants are seen sleeping outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, July 31, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
