A 15-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested Friday for several violent charges, including shooting at a police officer, in New York City.
The suspect, Jesus Alejandro Rivas Figueroa, opened fire inside a Times Square sporting-goods store Thursday night after being confronted by a security guard for attempted shoplifting. The teenager sprayed bullets in the direction of the guard before he fled into the street, according to police. One of the bullets grazed the leg of a tourist at the store, a 38-year-old woman from Brazil, who faced non-life-threatening injuries.
New York Police Department officials said the teenager was from Venezuela and had been staying at a Manhattan migrant shelter, after arriving in New York last fall. Rivas Figueroa is one of the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who have come to the city during the Biden administration, having crossed into the United States at the southern border.
The suspect was taken into custody in Yonkers, officials said. He is also considered a suspect in an armed robbery in the Bronx and a second shooting in Times Square last month, said John Chell, the NYPD’s chief of patrol.
As police chased the shooter for a few blocks on the busy streets surrounding Times Square, the suspect fired twice at an officer, according to NYPD officials.
“Our officer draws his weapon. He cannot fire,” he said. “Too many people around, there’s too many people ducking.”
The suspect fired again from under his arm and then ran into a subway station, where he was last seen. Video showed him going to the tracks and coming back, Chell said.
Chell said the shooter discarded his jacket while fleeing. News footage showed police tape surrounding a white jacket and baseball cap lying in the street across from Radio City Music Hall.
The shooting prompted a huge police presence and search that temporarily closed streets in the area. A reward of as much as $10,000 was offered for information about the shooter, police said.
America’s largest city has received more than 100,000 illegal immigrants since the spring of 2024, when border states began busing migrants to “sanctuary cities” — blue cities that have committed to providing shelter and social services to all individuals regardless of immigration status. It is estimated that New York City takes in over 10,000 migrants per month.
The NYC migrant crisis has cost the city billions, and is projected to cost $11 billion more over the next two years. In order to counter the costs of providing resources for 130,000-plus migrants, the city has proposed a budget requiring cuts to law enforcement, education, and other necessary services.
Under the proposed budget, the New York Police Department would cut the number of officers on the force to its smallest size since the 1980s. The budget also proposed $1 billion cuts for education, including summer-school programs and universal kindergarten.