New York migrant shelter residents arrested after brawl: sources
Cops arrested six residents of a Brooklyn refugee shelter Thursday morning — and charged four of them with assaulting an officer — for allegedly making noise during an NYPD crackdown on illegal scooters.
Officers seized motorized bicycles near the animal shelter at 445 Jefferson Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 7:15 a.m. when some of the residents became out of control, law enforcement sources told the Post.
The altercation ultimately led to police arresting six residents – four of whom were charged with assaulting an officer, sources said.
Two other people were charged with obstruction.
Sources said emergency responders treated two police officers for minor injuries. Officers also confiscated 16 electric scooters.
It is not the first time that trouble has broken out in one of the city’s migrant shelters over the vehicles that many unlicensed asylum seekers use to find work.
“Because we are immigrants, we don’t have many options,” said one immigrant Fox 5 said earlier this week. “One of the easiest ways is to grab a motorcycle and apply for Uber.”
Late last month, police officers arrested a migrant woman outside an Upper West Side shelter for allegedly slapping a police officer who tried to confiscate her unregistered motorcycle.
On August 31, police officers conducted an anti-scooter raid at West 71st Street and Broadway, just steps from the Stratford Arms Hotel, which the city uses as a shelter.
According to police, 20-year-old Baibaia Rodriguez was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and harassment after she “striked an officer with an open hand” around 10:30 p.m.
She was released on her own recognizance at her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court the following day.
