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Off-duty Border Patrol agent shot in a Manhattan park in apparent botched robbery, police say

Off-duty Border Patrol agent shot in a Manhattan park in apparent botched robbery, police say

Independent21-07-2025
An off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in a Manhattan park on Saturday following an apparent robbery gone wrong, New York City police and federal officials said.
The 42-year-old officer was in stable condition Sunday and expected to survive. There was no indication that he was targeted because of his employment, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The officer, who was not in uniform, had been sitting with a woman in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge when two men approached on a moped just before midnight. The passenger got off and approached the officer, who realized he was being robbed and drew his service weapon, Tisch said.
The two exchanged gunfire and the off-duty officer was shot in the face and arm. The perpetrator was injured before he and the moped driver rode off, police said.
A person of interest, identified as Miguel Mora, a 21-year-old undocumented immigrant with an extensive criminal past, was taken into custody after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds to the groin and leg, Tisch said. It was unknown if Mora had an attorney.
The police commissioner said Mora's injuries were consistent with what was seen on surveillance video of the shooting shared by the Department of Homeland Security.
The search for his alleged accomplice continued Sunday.
Mora entered the country illegally through Arizona in 2023 and had two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York. He was wanted in New York to face accusations of robbery and felony assault, and in Massachusetts over a stolen weapons case, Tisch said.
In a social media post Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump seized on the shooting as evidence of Democrats' failures to secure the border.
'The CBP Officer bravely fought off his attacker, despite his wounds, demonstrating enormous Skill and Courage,' Trump added.
The shooting comes as federal officials warn of a surge of attacks on agents carrying out Trump's mass deportation agenda.
As enforcement efforts have ramped up in recent months, many officers have chosen to cover their faces with the goal of avoiding harassment in public and online.
On Sunday, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, said he would allow agents to continue covering their faces as a safety measure.
'If that's a tool that the men and women of ICE that keeps themselves and their families safe, then I will allow it,' Lyons said.
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'There are youngsters just going round causing trouble and trashing things. There's nothing to do for the youngsters so they're out causing trouble. 'You can't go into a shop without someone begging outside now. It's sad. 'People need to come together to make Newport better. We want to see it improve, not deteriorate. 'Everyone here is struggling to survive. People are on the poverty line and even the foodbanks aren't running. 'It's a vulnerable place here, there's a lot of poverty. So it's a target for crime and dodgy shops.' Further down the high street, refuse worker Alun Jones looked around as he told the Daily Mail: 'It's depressing, yeah. It's gone downhill. 'They're all vapes shops, tiny grocery stores, and they get closed down every few months because they're selling illegal vapes and tobacco. 'They get closed down regularly, they get closed down there then they go over the road and open up there. So there's no deterrent. 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They also say that apart from Newport and Leicester, no other council provided vacancy data, and so the vacancy figures are based on 'modelling'. Kevin Ward, of Newport City Centre Business Improvement District, has also hit out at the report's findings, saying the report only focused on 63 of the country's largest cities and towns. He also argued that the situation has improved, from some 33 per cent of store units being vacant in 2021 to 19 per cent in the most recent figures. Antonio Campo and Rosy Ferrara, who have been running the popular Bar Piazza cafe near the centre's Friar Walk for 11 years, however say customers tell them they are scared to go to Commercial Street despite being around the corner. They said: 'People don't feel safe in Newport anymore. Our customers don't feel safe so they don't go near the main street. 'They don't feel safe. The crimes, the drugs and alcohol in this area is not good. The alcohol should be kept to the pub but it is not. 'I came here 11 years ago and back then I feel Newport was amazing. It's in the last 4 or 5 years it feels like no one cares about Newport anymore. 'I think the council is working well now to help the empty shops but it's still not good. 'You can organise as much things as you want, but if people don't feel safe then people will not come. 'I never felt unsafe in Newport, but I remember probably a year ago and my kids were playing outside my cafe. 'The girl from Specsavers said to me "keep your kids close because there are people here grabbing kids and going." 'I don't know if true but not very nice to hear. It's not something you want to worry about.' Close to the city centre are also some of the city's most deprived and crime-ridden areas including Pill, another factor which is thought to drive both customers and businesses away. Heidi Mehta, 50, said: 'I was a student here about 20 years ago. 'It was a thriving place to be, it felt safe, it had lots of cafes, it was a good place to go out. All of that is gone. 'I remember there being lot of shops that I could buy my art materials and things to do with my course, and now it feels like it's all pound shops or charity shops or betting shops or completely empty. Or vape shops, which wasn't around then. 'I don't feel the need to come into the high street anymore, there isn't the draw to come in. 'The only time I come into the city centre is for the bank and when I come in in the mornings there are a lot of homeless people outside the shopfronts. 'The feeling isn't I'll come to the bank and stay for a coffee. 'There is an issue with homeless people and drug use here, which is sad. 'It's definitely deprived, far more evident now than it used to be. People haven't got the income to spend that money, and you haven't got the shops that will bring in people with money. 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'I'm walking up and down and there's nowhere to go get some baby clothes. There's loads of charity shops and vape shops but no clothes shops. I just need a red t-shirt for her. It shouldn't be so difficult. 'It's got a bad reputation across the board, it's probably the worst city across Wales. 'It is struggling. It's a cycle. People don't have jobs, can't afford to shop in the high street.' Cherie Adams, 64 has lived in Newport all her life and looked back at what it once was. She said: 'It has gone down. When I was in school it was really thriving. 'It was a good shopping centre. Now people want to go to Cwmbran or Cardiff. 'I suppose every high street is suffering but this one especially. 'It's gotten a lot worse with homeless people, beggars, it's more noticeable now. 'I try to avoid them. I feel sorry for them but don't want to be on the tail end of them. 'You can hear them shouting up the street and you can tell they have mental health issues and drug issues. 'There was a bloke in the centre the other day who was on Spice and they are obviously getting it from somewhere. 'It's sad because I have seen it decline. 'It's changed a lot and I was born and bred here. 'Covid hit it harder but before that it was still in the background if you get what I mean. It was still happening. 'Covid was sort of the death knell. It's not really ever recovered.' While Newport was listed by the thinktank as the city with the highest proportion of empty store units, London, Cambridge and Oxford had the lowest vacancy rates, with under 10 per cent of shops lying empty. Tesni Howells, 18, felt it was a lack of local investment and independent businesses that was killing Newport's high street. He said: 'The major changes I've seen in the city centre was probably the leisure centre being closed. 'We haven't had anything like that since that was closed about a decade ago. 'Nothing in Friars Walk ever stays there. 'It's the same thing with the markets. 'It's gone in favour of big businesses coming in and they're not staying because it's actually not very profitable. 'What I'd really like to see is less of the big business and have more local businesses.' Council leader Councillor Dimitri Batrouni said: 'We absolutely agree that the number of retail units in the city centre needs to be reduced as the centre is too big for present day demand. 'The challenge is that city centre properties are mainly privately owned, sometimes by absent and neglectful landlords and it will require significant investment to achieve a reduction. 'However, we are determined to transform our city centre to be fit for the 21st century. The placemaking plan set outs proposals to start that process. In due course, we will be setting out further ambitious plans for our centre.'

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