Migrant who shot NYPD cops says that's 'common practice' back in Venezuela, prosecutors say

NEW YORK — A migrant accused of shooting and wounding two NYPD cops in Queens told authorities firing at police was “common practice” back home in Venezuela — although he claimed he didn’t mean to open fire, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, who prosecutors say shot the officers after being caught zipping the wrong way down a one-way Queens street on a scooter back on June 3, admitted to authorities he is a member of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

While he said it wasn’t a big deal for gang members and police in his native country to swap shots, he claims his gun just “went off” when Officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu tried to stop him on 82nd Street near 23rd Avenue in East Elmhurst, prosecutors said.

“My friend Jose might have given me a bag with a gun in it and asked me to keep it for him,” the 20-year-old Castro Mata, a delivery man for Door Dash, told investigators. “I knew there was a gun in the bag. When the cops stopped me, I ran because I was scared. I stopped and took out the gun to show the officer, and the round went off.”

“I did not pull the trigger,” he added. “The gun was ready when my friend gave it to me. The gun went off once.”

Castro Mata’s claims were recounted in Queens Supreme Criminal Court on Wednesday, where he was arraigned on a 20-count indictment of attempted murder and other charges. If found guilty, he could spend the next 80 years in prison.

Judge Kenneth Holder ordered Castro Mata held without bail at the close of the proceeding. More than 100 cops sat in the gallery as the charges were read, all glaring at Castro Mata, who sat quietly in a wheelchair.

When cops approached Castro Mata, the migrant pulled the gun from a crossbody bag and shot one cop in the stomach and the other in the upper right thigh, Queens Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reilly said.

The officers fired back, striking Castro Mata in the ankle. He only dropped the gun after he had been wounded Reilly said.

When he was being questioned at the hospital, Castro Mata said he had come to the United States through Eagle Pass, Texas. He lived in a shelter in Queens as Tren de Aragua recruited him to do robberies, he said.

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