A NYC Parks Department Worker who allegedly shot and killed a Venezuelan migrant camping inside a Brooklyn green space last month has been arrested and is facing charges, police sources reported Friday.
Seasonal parks employee, Elijah Mitchell, 23, allegedly fired multiple shots at Arturo Jose Rodriguez-Marcano, 30, on July 21 at around 10:45 p.m., striking him in the chest before taking off in a vehicle, according to cops and a criminal complaint.
Mitchell reportedly became enraged over the tent encampment set up by migrants at Steuben Playground on Flushing Avenue, near South Williamsburg and Clinton Hill, authorities and sources said.
The Parks Department confirmed that Mitchell was a seasonal worker first employed from May through September of 2023, and then rehired in May of this year. He was suspended on July 30 and the department is “moving to terminate his employment.”
Rodriguez-Marcano was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, NYPD said.
Mitchell was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He was ordered held on $350,000 bail or $500,000 bond at his arraignment Wednesday, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
In a separate shooting that reportedly occurred just blocks away and minutes later, which investigators said they initially believed was linked to the gunfire at the park, two men were fatally shot outside a migrant shelter at 29 Ryerson St., police said.
Enny DeJesus Urbina Mendez, 21, was reportedly shot multiple times, and Francisco Fuentes Rangel, 59, was reportedly shot in the head after two suspects pulled up to the shelter on the moped and one of them hopped off and opened fire, police sources said.
The man driving the moped, Jorge Said Benitez Villa, 26, suffered a broken hip and was arrested at the scene, according to a law enforcement official. The other man fled the scene, and has not been arrested.
Police believe that the shooting stemmed from tension among Venezuelan gangs. Benitez Villa was charged with two counts of murder; he is still in the hospital and has not been arraigned.
Mendez was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, and Rangel was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries two days later, according to police.
