A Queens woman who police believe was robbed by an immigrant who suspected of shooting and killing two NYPD officers has revealed she is suffering from PTSD-like symptoms after the violent snatch-and-grab robbery last month.
Desiree Mason, 38, spoke about the horrific attack in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, and expressed her gratitude to the injured officers for getting the man who allegedly shot and killed the officer, Bernardo Castro Mata, off the streets.
Mason was dragged from her car, which was parked outside her Woodhaven home, on the night of May 7 by a gunman calling himself Mata, who allegedly stole her purse and fled on a moped.
According to sources, Mata is being looked at as a suspect in the horrific incident.
“He dragged me out of the car right in front of my house!” she yelled.
The New York native said she feels uneasy when she sees people riding mopeds in her neighborhood.
“I’ve lived here 38 years and I’ve never felt this way,” she said. “Now I have kind of PTSD and I get anxious when I see someone on a moped. I think they’re going to jump off and rob me.”
Mason expressed gratitude to the officers who pursued him as he was driving the wrong way on a moped with no license plates and allegedly shot by a 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant early Monday morning.
“I want to meet with the three officers who caught him just to thank them,” she said Wednesday. “I want to thank them for being heroes and putting their lives on the line and I’m just glad they’re safe.”
Robert Messiah
“It makes me want to cry. They could have lost their lives. But… [Mata’s] I needed to get off the streets because it could have been a lot worse. [He] I could have killed someone! Dammit!”
On the night of the attack, Mason was on her way home from beauty school in Astoria and had parked her car in front of her house just before 10:30 p.m.
Security camera footage from the robbery obtained by The Washington Post shows the gunman approaching Mason’s car, dragging her from the driver’s seat and attempting to grab her purse from her hand.
Robert Messiah
The two are seen fighting over a bag and Mason is yelling at his father inside the house.
In the video, an aggressive man, believed to be Mata, is seen punching Mason as he tries to get her to let go of the bag.
The attacker continued to play tug-of-war over Mason’s purse before pulling her towards the road, where she was slammed into a trash can and fell to the road, where the attacker then grabbed the purse, causing her to roll and be dragged along, according to the video.
According to the footage and Mason, the robber was eventually able to grab the handbag when Mason dropped the handle of the purse towards the group and ran off towards her accomplice waiting on a moped.
Robert Messiah
She yells at him that she’s on camera, but he replies “I don’t care” and runs off.
Mason said by the time family and neighbours heard cries for help and rushed to the scene, the attacker had already fled with her wallet and a bag containing several debit and credit cards.
“I thought I was safe here. I’d never felt this way before,” she told the Post. “My mom and dad were upset and worried. Now my dad comes every night to watch me get out of the car.”
Mason said he saw his attacker’s face up close and then went to the police station, trying to pick him out among a line of suspects.
Mata, who entered the United States illegally last year, is a suspect in a series of moped robberies in Queens, including that of Mason, but has not yet been charged in any of the cases.
The suspects, who often operate in pairs on mopeds, snatch cell phones and wallets from New Yorkers as they speed by on their mopeds.
“These electric scooters have operated as a team in the past,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said at a press conference. “We are [Mata] He also faces charges in several other robberies in Queens, where he has other accomplices.”
Crimes involving these scooters have skyrocketed over the past two years, with more than 80 reported so far this year.
Law enforcement sources said the moped snatching of mobile phones was linked to a dangerous Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, and Mata has since been suspected of being a member of the notorious gang.
Mata, whose asylum application was rejected as part of the Biden administration’s “mass amnesty” program, is believed to have joined the powerful crime ring after arriving in the United States, possibly while staying at a Queens hotel that was being used as a migrant shelter, the sources said.
The suspect who shot the police officer has a tattoo on his arm of a clock intertwined with an anchor, which is reportedly a common tattoo among members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Mata is charged with two counts of attempted murder and numerous other offences in connection with the shooting of the police officer.
