A suspect was charged Sunday for stabbing a migrant to death at a Randall’s Island shelter on Saturday night, police reported.
Law enforcement sources said the victim, 24-year-old Dafren Canizalez, was attacked by the suspect during a dispute at the Randall’s Island Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center (HERRC) inside the cafeteria at about 7:27 p.m. on Jan. 6.
Officers from the 25th Precinct responded to the facility and located the victim, who suffered a stab wound to his chest.
EMS rushed Canizalez to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to sources familiar with the case, security guards at the HERRC apparently detained the suspect, 27-year-old Moises Coronado, following the attack. Police subsequently took him into custody for further questioning.
This is not the first migrant-related homicide in New York City in recent months.
On Nov. 16, 2023 a 15-year-old newly arrived teen was camping out on the Lower East Side’s Sara D. Roosevelt Park, where a large homeless population resides, when he got into a physical altercation with 25-year-old Alonso Pasquale. The boy stabbed Pasquale to death and injured his friend.
The Randall’s Island facility where Saturday night’s murder occurred opened in August 2023 and houses some 3,000 asylum seekers. In October, the NYPD and Park Enforcement officers performed a massive raid at the HERRC after a group of migrants got into a brawl with cops.
Still, with more than 200,000 migrants having apparently past through the Big Apple, the number of violent incidents involving migrants remains low.
