Charges filed against man accused of shooting 2 NYPD police officers from Long Island
A migrant from Venezuela is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on attempted murder charges stemming from the shooting early Monday of two NYPD patrol officers from Long Island, officials said.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, faces two counts of attempted murder in the first degree, two counts of assault in the second degree, as well as criminal possession of a weapon stemming from the shooting in the 115th Precinct in Elmhurst, about 1:40 a.m. Monday, said NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny Tuesday.
If convicted he could face a maximum of up to 40 years in prison.
Officials said Mata, who entered the United States illegally, shot at officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu, both 26, as the cops were on an enforcement action aimed at gangs of thieves on scooters. Yarusso lives in Suffolk County while Abreu hails from Nassau, records show.
Both cops were allegedly struck by bullets fired by Mata. Abreu was struck in the leg while one round hit Yarusso in his protective vest. Both officers were treated and released and sent home.
In a news conference after the shooting, Mayor Eric Adams held the vest that stopped a bullet meant for Yarusso.
“This is a bullet hole,” he said at the news conference, pointing to puncture in the vest at about the abdomen level. “Because of this vest, a young police officer is going home.”
In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, Kenny said that Mata was suspected of being a participant in numerous robberies and thefts in which he sometimes rode by victims on scooters or motorcycles and snatched items from them. Mata was arrested in the migrant hotel he was living at. Multiple credit cards linked to armed robberies elsewhere in Queens, were found in his room said Kenny.
Mata was wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the two officers and is expected to be arraigned from a hospital bed.
Kenny said the new phenomenon of scooter theft has amounted to 79 robbery patterns accounting for 416 incidents so far this year, compared to just 114 incidents in 2023.
“Multiple, multiple victims,” said Kenny,
Mara is suspected of carrying out thefts of cellphones with the goal of getting the phones while they were still functioning so the victims’ banking apps could be accessed. Mara had an army of people he worked with in an overall operation coordinating the thefts, police said.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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