NYC Mayor Adams Holds Press Briefing After Off-Duty CBP Officer Allegedly Shot By Illegal Immigrant

Forbes Breaking News

On Sunday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) held a press briefing on the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Patrol agent in Manhattan.

Transcript

00:00I'm joined here by Police Commissioner Tish,

00:06Deputy Mayor Daughtry, and Director Russo from the Custom and Border Patrol.

00:12And we are here to just first give our prayers to the family member

00:21of one of our partners in public safety that was struck twice

00:29with a bullet.

00:32I thank God that he's still with him and receiving the care

00:37from this excellent hospital, Harlem Hospital.

00:41And I could not help but to remember being here when Officer Maura and

00:47Rivera were executed and they were brought here to the hospital.

00:53And hearing the loud cries of their family members.

00:57Public safety is a dangerous assignment.

01:01And all of us who have done it, or who are currently doing it,

01:06we do it with the full understanding, not only on duty but off duty.

01:12The danger still exists.

01:15This issue, an incident of this shooting is a clear example of everything

01:23that's broken by our criminal justice system.

01:28One, the perpetrator or the person of interest that we have in custody have been known

01:37to have repeated interactions with law enforcement, violent interactions with law enforcement.

01:44The second, the over-proliferation of guns.

01:48Although we've removed over 22,000, bad guys continue to get guns in their possessions,

01:56and they're not afraid to use them.

01:59And thirdly, something that I talked about often, the violent migrant and asylum seekers

02:07who are bringing violence and really tarnish the reputation of those who come to this country

02:15to pursue the American dream.

02:18We have to be quick and swift to deal with those who believe they're going to inflict violence,

02:25not only on documented New Yorkers, but they are known to commit violence on undocumented New Yorkers.

02:33And so I want to thank our federal law enforcement partners, Custom Border Patrol and HSI, for joining us today.

02:42And I'm sorry that we're here for this unfortunate incident.

02:47We expect our city and state and federal law enforcement officers to always keep an eye out for trouble,

02:53both on and off duty, and that's what we see in this incident.

02:58Their training teaches them to always be prepared, no matter what.

03:02Be ready to protect themselves and protect the public.

03:06And last night, an off-duty federal officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection

03:12was in Riverside Park when an unexpected situation became a reality.

03:19Shortly before midnight last night, the 42-year-old male federal officer was with a friend

03:25with two perpetrators, two predators, on a moped approach.

03:32One male dismounted the scooter, displayed a firearm, and approached the two who were just trying to enjoy the city,

03:40like so many of us do, during the hot evening hour.

03:45According to the video, investigators recovered from the scene.

03:49It appears that our perpetrator discharged at least two shots, striking the officer in his face, and forearm.

03:58The federal officer returned fire.

04:00I just visited the officer as he makes his recovery.

04:06His mom and his family members were there, and they thanked the city for their response.

04:12Police Commissioner Tish is going to provide more detail in a minute, but as of now,

04:17I want to announce that we have a person of interest in custody.

04:20In New York City, this 21-year-old male has prior arrests for assault and violating an order of protection.

04:29At the time of this shooting, he had an active bench warrant from the Bronx,

04:35was wanted for a robbery from last December and a stabbing from January.

04:41In less than one year, he has inflicted violence in our city.

04:53And once he is charged for last night's crimes, we will be able to add attempted murder to his rap sheet.

04:59This individual also had an extradition warrant from Massachusetts for kidnapping

05:07and was the subject of a federal deportation order after illegally entering the country in 2023.

05:15Filings of this kind will never, never be accepted in this city.

05:19And we want to thank our partners.

05:22And again, our heart goes out to the family members who are involved in all New Yorkers.

05:27I want to now turn it over to Commissioner Tish.

05:34Thank you, sir.

05:35Good afternoon.

05:36The information I'm about to provide is preliminary and is subject to change.

05:41I'm going to brief you on a shooting incident that occurred last night in Riverside Park

05:46in the confines of the 3-3 precinct in which the victim was an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer.

05:55The details are as follows.

05:57Yesterday, July 19th, at 11.53 p.m., the officer was sitting on the rocks along the waterside.

06:04Two males rode up to him on a scooter, and the passenger got off and approached him from behind.

06:12One of the perpetrators produced a firearm, at which point the officer realized that he was being robbed

06:18and drew his service weapon in defense.

06:22The perp fired first, and an exchange of gunfire followed.

06:27The officer was struck in the forearm and in the face.

06:32This was all captured, as the mayor said, on CCTV, which also shows that the perp was injured by the gunfire

06:39and limped back to the scooter.

06:42The perp and his accomplice, the driver of the scooter, then fled the scene.

06:46At this time, we have no indication that the officer was targeted for his employment.

06:53Detectives have not yet recovered the perp's firearm, but we did recover discharge shell casings, both 380 caliber and 9mm.

07:03The 9mm are consistent with the officer's service weapon.

07:08We also recovered blood at the scene, which is now being processed for DNA evidence, and compared to bloody clothing,

07:15later recovered as part of the investigation.

07:19At this time, we are investigating a person of interest in relation to this shooting.

07:26Miguel Mora, a 21-year-old male, walked into Bronx Care Hospital at 12.18 a.m.

07:32with gunshot wounds to the groin and the leg, consistent with the injuries sustained by the perp,

07:40as captured on the CCTV video that our detectives have reviewed.

07:45He was then transported to Lincoln Hospital, where he underwent surgery.

07:51Our initial investigation reveals that Mr. Mora entered the country illegally in 2023 through Arizona.

07:58This individual has two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York,

08:03and he has an active warrant after not showing up to a court date on one of those cases.

08:10Additionally, Mr. Mora was wanted by this department on both a robbery from December 2024

08:16and a felony assault stabbing from January 2025, both of which occurred in the Bronx.

08:23He is currently in our custody at Lincoln Hospital and is expected to be arrested today for both incidents.

08:32Mr. Mora is also wanted outside of New York in Massachusetts for the robbery of a pawn shop,

08:39in which guns were stolen in February 2025.

08:43The NYPD is working hand-in-hand with Customs and Border Protection through the HSI Violent Gang Task Force

08:50to confirm that the person of interest in custody is the perp who shot the officer,

08:57as well as find and apprehend his accomplice.

09:01We are also working with the Southern District of New York on this case.

09:05Of course, if anyone has any information about this incident or the whereabouts of the accomplice,

09:11we urge you to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

09:17I will now turn it over to Director Frank Russo from Customs and Border Protection.

09:23Thank you, Commissioner Tish.

09:28And first and foremost, I want to thank the NYPD and their incredible efforts to help save our officer.

09:35The location in the park where the incident occurred is one where an ambulance would not be able to get to quickly.

09:42And NYPD was very quick to escort our officer to the hospital and to help save his life.

09:50And we also want to thank the mayor's office for all of his support.

09:54This investigation is one that we are cooperating fully with NYPD and with Homeland Security Investigations

10:01and our internal affairs office as well.

10:03Let's make something incredibly clear tonight today.

10:06Our officer is a hero.

10:09He did exactly what we ask of all of our officers under the circumstances.

10:15He executed our mission, which is to protect the country.

10:19And he did it by stopping a threat.

10:22If not for his efforts, this person of interest would have committed more armed robberies.

10:29And so we are grateful for his efforts.

10:33We expect him to make a speedy recovery.

10:36And our hearts go out to him and his family.

10:40And now we'll take some questions.

10:41Any word of how the officer is doing is being identified yet as well?

10:50Not identified, but he's in stable condition.

10:54Has he been able to talk or say anything?

10:56No, he communicates with the hand gestures.

11:02Was he in uniform at the time?

11:03He was not.

11:04You talked about the NYPD responding at the scene and helping get him out of there.

11:09How did all of that happen?

11:11Did the person who was with him call 911?

11:13How was he removed from there?

11:15We'll ask him if he can do that as well.

11:18So the person he was with called 911, but we also had an additional 911 call for a robbery

11:23that had taken place about five minutes previous.

11:26Very similar motive.

11:27Two males on a scooter that forcibly removed a cell phone from a woman.

11:31So the officers were responding to both 911 calls.

11:33So the officers were in the area already looking for those individuals?

11:37They were on the way responding to the first 911 call, which was a robbery in progress.

11:41And these two individuals were being investigated in that crime as well?

11:44That's correct.

11:48Was the victim with a female?

11:52The victim was with a female companion.

11:54Yes.

11:54Okay.

11:55We have time for the work of the government.

11:57So anyone who wants to answer this can.

12:00It's how did this, how did the system fail so badly here?

12:03I mean, you had a Massachusetts warrant, deportation order, and multiple arrests here in New York City.

12:08And he felt comfortable enough to hang around after he had already robbed somebody.

12:12Because he didn't have to worry about it.

12:14He was going to be let go again.

12:16And it took a federal agent shooting him to stop.

12:19How is our system working here at all?

12:22Our goal is to get dangerous people off the streets.

12:35And we have done that with our federal partners.

12:38If you know of a number of the dangerous gangs takedown that we participated in.

12:43And whatever we need to do in our federal laws to ensure that dangerous people are not on our streets,

12:50federal authorities need to do that.

12:53Here in New York City, our laws are clear on what we can do and what we can't do.

12:57We will always coordinate with our partners going after dangerous individuals.

13:01We're not allowed to coordinate, dealing with deportation, civil deportation only.

13:09But we have used the tools with our task force and our federal partners to remove dangerous people off the streets.

13:15I also want to add that I communicated with the Board of Zaha.

13:21And he's en route also to visit our officer.

13:26Thank you all so much.

13:26Appreciate it.

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