Randall's Island migrant residents say stabbing is latest in a string of violence, crime

Police announced charges on Friday morning for six people arrested in connection with a stabbing at the Randall’s Island migrant shelter on Thursday afternoon — the same facility where a man was fatally stabbed in another incident earlier this month.

NYPD officials said a verbal argument escalated into physical violence at the shelter around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. When officers arrived, they found a 24-year-old man with a stab wound to his neck.

The victim was taken to Harlem Hospital Center in stable condition, and police arrested a total of 18 people at the scene.

Of those arrested, 12 were later released with criminal court summonses for disorderly conduct, according to the NYPD. The six remaining individuals were charged with various offenses, including assault, menacing, criminal weapons possession, reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence.

It’s unclear how the fight began.

All of the suspects are residents of the sprawling tent facility, which is the city’s largest migrant relief center and is capable of housing up to 3,000 new arrivals.

Several migrants living at the facility told Gothamist that Thursday’s incident exacerbated their safety concerns about the shelter, where they said stealing and fights among residents are common.

“We got here Jan. 6, and that same day they had killed somebody,” said Monica Gil, 36, a Colombian migrant who was placed at the shelter with her husband the night 24-year-old Dafren Canizalez was fatally stabbed by another shelter resident. “So tell me, how safe can it be?”

“The few things we have– whatever we leave there, people steal,” said Gil’s husband Esteban Quintero, 32. “People are bored, and there’s no security. People have weapons and everything … you don’t know what people have.”

Quintero, Gil and other migrants who spoke to Gothamist said Thursday’s incident involved a member of security staff, leading them to feel like they can’t even rely on those responsible for enforcing safety and order at the site.

“The security workers have to be more professional,” Quintero said, adding that he feels police officers would be better suited to patrolling the facility because “they’re more demanding.”

Peruvian migrant Jose Escobedo, 63, said he doesn’t feel safe at the facility either because “there are so many fights inside,” but added that he wasn’t sure there was an easy way for the city to rectify the situation.

“What can they do? The immigrants are coming by the thousands,” he said.

NYPD officials corroborated the fact that a security worker was involved in Thursday’s incident, but didn’t specify exactly how and added that the incident was still under investigation.

“Violence will not be tolerated and any illegality will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” wrote City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak in a statement.

Arrow Security, one of the companies contracted to provide security guards for the Randall’s Island shelter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Quintero and Gil said they’re hoping to be granted asylum in the United States due to the impossible economic situation in Colombia, but acknowledged that the tense environment at the shelter was not what they imagined they’d find here.

“We’re leaving our own countries to feel safer in the U.S., but here it’s like the same,” Quintero said. “It’s really hard.”

This story has ben updated with new information.