9th Suspect Arrested in Attack on Cops at Times Square Migrant Shelter

(NY Daily News/TNS/Hamodia) — A ninth suspect has been nabbed for the caught-on-video January attack on two NYPD cops outside a Times Square migrant shelter, police said Tuesday.

Edgarlis Vegas, 20, was arrested Monday morning for the Jan. 27 attack outside the W. 47th St. shelter that sparked outrage citywide.

Vegas, who is accused of kicking at police officers, was charged with assault and obstructing governmental administration. She was arraigned Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court, and bail was set at $25,000 cash/$75,000 bond.

The attack on the two officers was caught on viral video that has intensified the debate about migrants in the city and the country.

So far, eight other suspects have been indicted and numerous others are being sought.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was criticized after the first four suspects taken into custody who were initially released without bail. They were later indicted.

Bragg has pushed back on the criticism, noting the difficulty of prosecuting a case in which some of the suspects changed their clothes after the assault, making it more difficult to determine from video who did what.

After Bragg announced the indictments of several of the suspects, he released police body-worn camera footage that seemed to contradict the NYPD contention that the small group of suspects were blocking pedestrian traffic when officers first approached.

Pedestrians could be seen on video walking freely past the men. The video shows most of the group immediately complying, singing in unison as they walk away. But one suspect, Yohenry Brito, 24, lags behind and ignores the officers while looking at his phone, then gets confrontational with a cop who tries to nudge him along.

As Brito walks away, he stops to retrieve a baby stroller on the sidewalk. Body-cam footage shows him pushing the stroller and starting to walk away from the cops again before quipping in Spanish that one of the officers looked ugly. NYPD Lt. Ben Kurian then grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him up against a wall.

In the footage captured by the lieutenant’s bodycam, Brito repeatedly asks what is happening in Spanish. The situation quickly escalates as Brito tries to escape Kurian’s grasp, with both tumbling to the ground in seconds.

Officer Zunxu Tian then intervened and several of the men with Brito descend on the two cops and repeatedly grab and kick them as they grapple with Brito on the ground, various pieces of footage show.

According to the criminal complaint, video surveillance footage shows Vegas “kicking repeatedly at Lieutenant Kurian and Police Officer Tian as they struggled with Brito on the ground, appearing to strike Lieutenant Kurian in the back with her foot.”

The complaint says Kurian “suffered a laceration to his nose, bruising to his face, bruising to his right bicep, and substantial pain,” and Officer Tian “suffered substantial pain to his shoulder which has persisted for over a week, decreased range of motion of his shoulder, and an inability to lift heavy objects without feeling pain in his shoulder.”