A Parks Department officer is suspected of shooting and killing a Venezuelan migrant who was camping near two problem shelters in a Brooklyn parkland last month, police and law enforcement sources said Friday.
Elijah Mitchell, 23, a seasonal park worker, was apparently infuriated by the tent camp the migrants had set up at Steuben Playground on Flushing Avenue near South Williamsburg and Clinton Hill, authorities and sources said.
According to police and the criminal complaint, his anger erupted around 10:45 p.m. on July 21, when Mitchell allegedly fired multiple shots at Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano, 30, striking him in the chest before fleeing in a vehicle.
Rodriguez-Marcano was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died from his injuries, police said.
Mitchell was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a weapon.
He was ordered held on $350,000 bail or $500,000 surety at his arraignment Wednesday, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
The parks service confirmed that Mitchell was a seasonal worker employed from May to September 2023, before being rehired in May of this year.
He was suspended on July 30 and the police department is “in the process of terminating his employment.”
In a separate shooting a few blocks away and minutes later that investigators initially believed was connected to the park shooting, two men were shot and killed outside a migrant shelter at 29 Ryerson St., police said.
Police said two suspects arrived at the shelter on a moped, one of whom jumped off the bike and opened fire.
Police said Eny DeJesus Urbina Mendez, 21, was shot multiple times and taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Francisco Fuentes Rangel, 59, was shot in the head and taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died from his injuries two days later, police said.
Video shared on Instagram shows the aftermath of the accident at the intersection of Park Avenue and Taaffe Place, where the suspect’s moped collided with a car.
The moped driver, later identified as Jorge Said Benitez Villa, 26, was wounded and arrested, but the passenger, the suspected gunman, fled and remained at large Friday, police and officials said.
Sources said the shooting was believed to be linked to a bloody turf war between former members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who were battling for control of the drugs and prostitution industries.
Benitez Villa, who is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, remained hospitalized Friday and had not been arraigned.
Investigators later determined the two shootings were not related, officials said.
