Northeast

Illegal migrant from Venezuela allegedly shot NYPD officers at 'point-blank range,' ordered held without bail

Published

2 years ago

on

June 8, 2024

By

Press Room

Illegal migrant from Venezuela allegedly shot NYPD officers at 'point-blank range,' ordered held without bail

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The illegal immigrant accused of shooting two New York City Police Department officers in Queens was arraigned on attempted murder and other charges on Wednesday, as prosecutors outlined how the suspect allegedly opened fire at “point-blank range” during a struggle on the ground.

Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, appeared remotely from his hospital bed to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court in connection to the shooting of Officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu.

Judge Jeffrey Gershuny ordered Castro Mato, who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the ankle, held without bail on charges of attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration, the New York Daily News reported. More than 50 police officers attended the hearing in person to show support for Yarusso and Abreu.

Queens Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reilly said Castro Mata was the “very definition of a flight risk,” given he was “fleeing from uniformed police officers before shooting two police officers.”

Authorities said Yarusso and Abreu were investigating a robbery pattern involving thieves on mopeds and scooters when they spotted Castro Mata on a scooter without a helmet riding the wrong way on 82nd St. near 23rd Ave. in East Elmhurst around 1:40 a.m. Monday. In court Wednesday, prosecutors said Castro Mata was riding an “unregistered motorcycle,” the Daily News reported.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN USES AOC’S INSULT TO RIP SILENCE ON 2 COPS SHOT ALLEGEDLY BY MIGRANT GANG MEMBER: ‘BABY GIRL’

When the officers attempted to pull the migrant over, he fled on foot. One officer ran after him on foot, while the other followed in the police cruiser. The officers soon tackled Castro Mata to the ground.

Bernardo Castro Mata, 19, appears in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, on attempted murder and other charges for allegedly shooting New York Police Department officers Christopher Abreu and Richard Yarusso. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Pool/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“During the struggle, [Castro Mata] reached inside a crossbody bag that was across his chest, removed the firearm, put the gun against Officer Yarusso’s chest and shot Officer Yarusso in the lower middle portion of his chest at point blank range,” Reilly said, according to Daily News. “The defendant then shot Officer Abreu straight in the upper right thigh area.”

Gershuny ordered that Castro Mata be sent to Rikers Island once he is released from the hospital.

“Trying to avoid a traffic stop using violence by any means necessary to get away leaves this court with no doubt whatsoever that he would flee with any means possible,” the judge said.

Police said Yarusso was wearing a bullet-resistant vest, which saved his life. Both officers were treated at Elmhurst Hospital and Yarusso pushed Abreu out in a wheelchair when they were both released hours after the shooting. Police returned fire during the struggle, and Castro Mata was shot in the ankle. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens for treatment.

New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry addressed the media outside the Queens courthouse after Castro Mata’s arraignment. (NYC PBA )

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT FROM VENEZUELA SHOOTS 2 NYC POLICE OFFICERS DURING FOOT CHASE IN QUEENS, AUTHORITIES SAY

“That night they both confronted a brazen, violent individual who wasn’t afraid to carry a gun and shoot two New York City police officers at point-blank range,” New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said at a press conference outside the courthouse.

“The skill, the grit of these two police officers was the reason they not only survived, they were able to stop that individual from hurting anyone else. Today, this court sent a message that they’re going to support these police officers who put their lives on the line every single day, just like these police officers and every New York City police officer out their lives on the line to protect New Yorkers,” Hendry, surrounded by dozens of officers, said. “But this message needs to be consistent: That if you attack a police officer, in every borough, in every courthouse across this city, they will be prosecuted. And those who are responsible for our public safety, owe it to every single New Yorker, every single police officer that they’re going to have a system in place that protects us all.”

Officer Richard Yarusso, who was shot in the chest and saved by his vest, wheeled his partner, Officer Christopher Abreu, who was shot in the leg, out of Elmhurst Hospital to the applause of NYPD brass and officers Monday, June 3, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Police said Castro Mata entered the country illegally last July near El Paso, Texas and was staying at a former airport hotel-turned migrant shelter in the Elmhurst section of Queens. Citing sources, the New York Post reported that Castro Mata has a tattoo that signals to investigators he could be a member of Venezuela’s “bloodthirsty” Tren de Aragua gang.

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Prosecutors noted in court Wednesday that Mastro Mata’s .380-caliber pistol was recovered from the scene. It had two bullets left, one in the chamber and one in the magazine.

Castro Mata was found in possession of multiple credit cards, two of which were connected to gunpoint robberies in the Bronx carried out by thieves on scooters at the time of his arrest. He had been suspected in a string of robberies and a May 30 incident in which investigators believe he pulled a gun on a security guard at a Lot Less store in Queens and fled by scooter.

After the shooting, police conducted a massive crackdown on illegal vehicles Tuesday night, seizing 72 illegal ATVs, motorbikes and mopeds as well as three vehicles during the operation.

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Vermont

Rockwell was ‘At Home in Vermont’ – VTDigger

Published

6 minutes ago

on

June 27, 2026

By

Press Room

Rockwell was ‘At Home in Vermont’ – VTDigger

Shelburne Museum Curator Carolyn Bauer stands in front of the three Norman Rockwell paintings the museum owns. Photo by Sophia Balunek/Shelburne News

This story by Liberty Darr was first published in the Shelburne News on June 25, 2026.

“In New York, the models I’ve had to depend on are all washed-out and unhealthy. Up here, I not only encounter practically every type of American I’ll ever have to use, but they look healthy!”

The quote by iconic illustrator Norman Rockwell helps to understand the new Shelburne Museum exhibit “Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont.”

The exhibit examines how the beloved American illustrator shaped an enduring vision of Vermont — one with real people — during his years living and working in Arlington from 1939 to 1953. But Arlington wasn’t just a place for him to find refuge from city life in New Rochelle, New York. He was truly woven into the community. He attended the local swing dances and the PTA meetings, judged many art fairs and even crowned a carnival queen, according to Carolyn Bauer, curator at Shelburne Museum.

He knew the local firemen, the doctor and the young children down the street. And he used them to inform his work of painting a picture of true, American life — one that represented not only the values Vermonters hold dear, but also what the country was yearning for at that time.

“Take a step back and think about what is happening in America during those 14 years too,” Bauer said. “We’re coming out of the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar era. How is the country changing its identity? And vis-a-vis, how is Vermont becoming part of the collective national imagination?”

Rockwell was not the only artist of that time finding relief from city life in the quaint town of Arlington in the Green Mountain State. The way Bauer puts it, Rockwell was not creating in a vacuum. The town’s strong artist circle had already taken root with the likes of Mead Schaeffer, John Atherton and Gene Pelham — who would all play a key role in Rockwell’s creations throughout that time.

While in Vermont, Rockwell created 175 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Bauer said, and at the time, there were more Saturday Evening Post illustrators per capita in Arlington than anywhere else in the nation.

“They were also really looking to distill into their imagery and inspiration these values that were found in Vermont that couldn’t be found elsewhere at that moment,” Baur said, noting virtues like self-reliance, neighborliness, civic duty — things the country was looking for especially during periods of crisis.

Author Dorothy Canfield Fisher, whose legacy has since been tarnished by her alleged ties to the eugenics movement, captured the idea particularly well in 1942, portraying Vermont as a stronghold of democratic spirit and cultural integrity.

“Much of what we call ‘Vermontism,’” she wrote, “is nothing but good ‘old-Americanism’ surviving in an out-of-the-main-current community, which has not been so beaten upon as communities elsewhere by the storms of modern life.”

While the exhibit is separate from the museum’s “America 250” exhibition, it is, at its core, a celebration of Americana.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about Rockwell without talking about patriotism, Bauer said. She pointed to his well-known works in the “Four Freedoms” series — “Freedom of Speech,” “Freedom of Worship,” “Freedom from Want” and “Freedom from Fear” — painted during World War II, with inspiration taken from American ideals spelled out by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The first, “Freedom of Speech,” depicts a man standing up at what appears to be a traditional Vermont town meeting, a copy of the town’s annual report in hand.

“Not everyone understands that level of civic duty that is instilled to us here in Vermont,” Bauer said.

The exhibit features 40 of the 175 covers Rockwell created for The Saturday Evening Post in addition to large-scale original favorites like “The Tattoo Artist” and “The Young Lady with the Shiner.”

The exhibit, roughly a year in the making — which is record time for a museum — was largely inspired by the museum’s recent acquisition of three Rockwell paintings that, at one point, were commissioned by Rock of Ages in Barre for the company’s national advertising campaign in 1955.

The museum last year was given “Kneeling Girl” and “The Craftsman” — both the final product and also a sketch. Both of them, Bauer said, are important hallmarks of Vermont industry and craftsmanship.

Bauer hopes that those who visit the exhibition — which is on view through Oct. 25 — walk away with not only an understanding of the broader context of the work, but a knowledge of how deeply personal these works were to the artists on display.

“We know Rockwell as this individual genius, but again, he wasn’t working alone, he was working in collaboration with these other Arlington artists, but also the community, the models, the people down the street,” she said. “He knew these people intimately, this town, the American people at large. He was an incredibly empathetic person, and you could read that in each of his works.”