Arizona migrants arrested 'not affiliated' with NYPD attack case despite reports: DA
NEW YORK CITY - Four migrants arrested in Arizona Monday are "not affiliated" with the investigation into the brutal Times Square beating of two NYPD officers, despite earlier reports, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
The DA says they are now focused on 10 to 11 people, but at some point, there could be more. All 5 migrants who were released without bail are due back in court on March 5.
The DA's office says that their court date will be moved up, but it is unclear when the actual date will be.
ICE sources told multiple news outlets, including Fox News, that a group of migrants were arrested at a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix in connection to the NYPD attack.
The DA's office on Wednesday backed away from these claims.
"The Manhattan D.A.’s Office was informed yesterday by HSI that the four individuals they took into custody were not affiliated with the New York City investigation. To date, we have not received any indication from federal authorities that they have detained anyone related to our case," Manhattan D.A. Communications Director Danielle Filson said in a statement.
At least seven suspects have been arrested as of Wednesday, but as many as 14 people could be involved in the attack. The surveillance footage, recorded Jan. 27 outside a Times Square homeless shelter, shows several men kicking officers on a sidewalk and trying to pry them off a man police had taken to the ground.
Nobody was seriously hurt, but the video of officers being pummeled has prompted waves of public outrage.
NYC and ICE cooperation
In press appearances Monday, Adams noted the vast majority of the nearly 175,000 migrants who have come to the city are law abiding. He said it would be wrong for "any New Yorker to look at people trying to fulfill the next step on the American Dream as criminal."
But in recent days, Adams has also shown a willingness to pull back on a set of laws that often block the city from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
So far, in total, seven people have been arrested in connection with the attack, the NYPD said.
Describing the Times Square incident as "an attack on the foundation of our symbol of safety," Adams, a moderate Democrat and former police captain, called on the City Council to consider "if there should be more collaboration" with federal immigration officials. He did not elaborate.
Since 2014, the police department and city jails have been barred from holding people in custody on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless they have been convicted of certain violent crimes and a judge has issued a warrant for their removal.
Federal immigration authorities don't have a presence in the city’s jail system. City resources aren't supposed to be used to assist in the detention and deportation process.
Experts said it wasn’t immediately clear what role, if any, the city’s so-called "sanctuary" policies may have had in the cases of the men accused of assaulting officers in Times Square.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.