Police officials said two armed men, believed to be Venezuelan immigrants, one of them carrying a fully automatic handgun, stole the car of an off-duty New York Police Department officer in Harlem.
Sources say the men were approached by officers in a personally owned 2020 BMW at the intersection of West 146th Street and Bradhurst Avenue around 11:30 p.m. on Friday.
The suspects, who had tattoos believed to indicate ties to Venezuelan gangs, had their weapons drawn.
One of them knocked the gun out of the officer’s hand and demanded the keys.
A police source told The Post that the pair then fled into the night in an officer’s vehicle.
Sources said one of the guns used in the brazen attack was equipped with a Glock switch and was fully automatic, something not typically seen in New York City.
An officer’s iPad was in the car and was used to track the vehicle.
Sources said the car was found empty less than a mile away at the intersection of West 138th Street and Broadway.
Police searched the scene and found the suspect.
Two guns were also recovered.
Neither man had any identification but gave police his names as Jomar Crespo, 21, and Jose Rivera, 20, and gave an address in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Authorities believe the suspect used a false name, officials said.
Rivera and Crespo were each charged with robbery, grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a machine gun, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of stolen property, modifying a firearm to fire multiple rounds and unlawful possession of an ammunition feeding device.
It is the second time in the past month that an attack on an NYPD officer has been linked to immigration.
Earlier in June, a 19-year-old migrant with ties to a Venezuelan gang opened fire on two police officers, wounding another.
Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, who entered the United States illegally from Texas in July, allegedly told police after his arrest that he had been recruited by a violent Venezuelan gang in New York City and encouraged to get distinctive tattoos to show his loyalty.
