The city parks employee accused of shooting a Venezuelan migrant who had pitched a tent in a Brooklyn park last month is now facing hate crime charges.
Seasonal worker Elijah Mitchell faced charges including murder as a hate crime during a court hearing Wednesday in connection with the July 21 shooting death of Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano.
Mitchell was initially charged with first-degree murder.
The 23-year-old suspected killer was tasked with cleaning the Steuben Playground near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Clinton Hill and was furious when migrants from nearby shelters set up camp in the park, according to prosecutors and police sources.
He showed up for work at the playground on July 18 and began tearing apart the camp’s tarps and tents while yelling at residents, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez Marcano, 30, confronted the park employee and the two argued until Mitchell went to his car and returned to pull out a gun in his waistband before his co-workers pulled him away, authorities said.
Three days later, Mitchell returned to the park at around 10:45 p.m., spotted the Venezuelan and fired several shots at him, hitting him in the chest, prosecutors alleged.
Rodriguez Marcano was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he died of his injuries, police said.
Mitchell was charged with voluntary murder as a hate crime, voluntary murder, illegal possession of a weapon, threatening as a hate crime, and uttering a threat.
He pleaded not guilty at a court hearing on Wednesday and was held on bail of $350,000 cash or $2.5 million. He is due back in court on October 23.
Mitchell was suspended by the park service on July 30.
The murder was initially linked to the fatal shooting of two men in front of a nearby migrant shelter, which had taken place just minutes later. The night was marked by deadly violence for the city’s migrant population.
Enny DeJesus Urbina Mendez, 21, and Francisco Fuentes Rangel, 59, were both shot by two suspects on a moped as they drove past the shelter at 29 Ryerson Street, police said.
Both men died in local hospitals and police later determined that the cases were not related. The suspects in this case are believed to be members of the brutal Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
With post wires
