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New York Post
NYC Parks Dept. worker charged with killing migrant allegedly went on shocking anti-immigration tirade: ‘This is our country’
By Kyle Schnitzer,
2024-08-22
A city Parks Department employee accused of gunning down a Venezuelan migrant in a Brooklyn greenspace went off on a shocking tirade after his arrest — and claimed he was merely taking a “piss” when the shots rang out, new court papers reveal.
Seasonal worker Elijah Mitchell, 23, allegedly spewed an anti-migrant rant to detectives following his arrest for the July 21 shooting of Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano, who was camping out with other asylum seekers at the Steuben Playground, near a pair of troubled shelters in Clinton Hill.
“I don’t have time to let a migrant f–k up what I got going on in my life,” Mitchell told cops, according to documents filed as he was indicted for murder as a hate crime Wednesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“The government let them come in here and they get $1,500 a month. They get free money a month,” he continued. “You work for your money, right? Y’all were born here. This is y’all country. This is our country.”
Prosecutors claim Mitchell started to lose his cool days before the fatal shooting when he was assigned to clean the park near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where migrants from the nearby shelters had pitched some tents.
Mitchell, of Corona, Queens, allegedly started yelling and ripping off tarps before he was confronted by Rodriguez Marcano, 30, leading to an altercation, police have said.
He then went to his truck and came back, lifting his shirt and showing a gun tucked in his waistband to intimidate his victim, prosecutors said at his arraignment.
Mitchell allegedly denied owning a gun more than 20 times in his statement to police, and claimed that the migrants in the park — some “Spanish [and] African” — got “belligerent” when one worker asked them to move their clothes from the area.
“What caused me to leave was that they were being aggressive,” Mitchell allegedly said about the July 18 run-in, before claiming that the migrants “started grabbing weapons and s–t” before they chased him down.
Three nights later, prosecutors allege, Mitchell came back to the park when he wasn’t working to shoot Rodriguez Marcano once in the chest.
But Mitchell claimed he had stopped by the park after a barbecue, when he heard a “pop.”
“It’s a public park. I had to piss. I just came from the barbecue. I took a leak,” Mitchell allegedly told detectives, adding he ran from the park when he heard the shot.
“When I got outta there, and I looked on Citizen app, right, it popped up that people had got shot in front of the f–king shelter,” he claimed.
Rodriguez Marcano died nearly 30 minutes after being rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, cops said.
Mitchell was arrested July 30 and suspended from the Parks Department.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Wednesday to charges including second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun held Mitchell on $350,000 cash bail. He is due back in court on Oct. 23.
“This defendant allegedly came to the location where the victim was staying, armed with a gun, to settle a score,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “This premeditated and cold-blooded homicide is outrageous on many levels, not least because the alleged motive was hatred towards new arrivals to our city.”
An attorney for Mitchell did not return an email Wednesday.
For the latest metro stories, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/metro/
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