Dozens of Queens residents on Sunday called on the city to close an immigrant shelter in East Elmhurst where a Venezuelan national accused of shooting and killing two NYPD officers was living.
About 60 residents and officials rallied outside the 90th Street building, a converted Courtyard Marriott hotel that now houses asylum seekers and was the former home of Bernardo Castro Mata, a 19-year-old immigrant who is charged with attempted murder of two New York City police officers in connection with the fatal police shootings.
“Our communities have been oversaturated with homeless shelters for far too long. This has been a total failure at every level of government,” said former City Councilman and State Assemblyman Hiram Monserrate. “The recent police-involved shootings are a flashpoint and a time to take action.”
“We see it every day in our community. We see how the quality of life has declined,” Monserrate said. “Right now we’re getting complaints about campers and prostitution here on Ditmars Boulevard. Drug sales here on Ditmars Boulevard. Alcohol consumption here in our community.”
He said Queens already has 15 migrant shelters between Queens Boulevard and LaGuardia International Airport and is at capacity.
“Shut it down,” residents chanted outside the shelter on 90th Street on Sunday.
“Enough is enough,” said resident Frank Taylor, a member of Ditmer’s Block Association. “It’s time to start closing down some of these facilities, starting with this one. Our community has been harmed. We are taxpayers and homeowners and we’ve been treated with zero respect and taken for granted.”
New York City has been inundated with thousands of migrants from the US border over the past two years, leaving city officials scrambling to find hotels, schools, churches and other places to accommodate them.
Federal immigration officials said Mata, who entered Texas illegally from Mexico in July, was among those living at the former East Elmhurst hotel until late last month.
Mata, accused of shooting and killing two police officers in Queens, was already a gang member and was suspected of being part of a violent gang of immigrant mopeds terrorizing the city.
Sources told The Post that the suspect told detectives he was a member of the notoriously violent Venezuelan “Tren de Aragua” gang and had met with a “coordinator” in New York City to be recruited for a motorcycle robbery operation.
Locals say there is no place for Mata or any other migrant in their community.
Another resident, Dr. Laverne Nimmons, said she lived next to the hotel for 30 years, long before the city turned it into a shelter and caused headaches for neighbors.
“We were concerned about shelters because we were concerned about the quality of life for New Yorkers,” said Nimmons, the former elementary school principal. “Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a quality life.
“We care about the quality of life for our neighbors and our New York community,” she added. “That’s important, but this is going too far. It’s going too far to flood our neighborhoods with shelters that don’t get us the help we need.”
