Mamdani’s mayorship of New York City is off to a wonderful start, said no one ever.
Two illegal immigrants accused of stabbing an off-duty NYPD detective seven times are off the streets, caught hiding in a basement in Lynn, Massachusetts after a five-day manhunt. D’Angelo Caraballo, 25, and Sneider Mejia, 24, were taken into custody overnight, the NYPD announced Wednesday.
The NYPD posted the update on X, crediting the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Boston Regional Fugitive Task Force for the arrest. “If you come for one of us, you’ll have the full force of the NYPD coming for you,” the department wrote. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise with a track record.
According to the New York Post, the pair approached Detective Jose Mercedes, 33, on an e-bike while he was unloading his car in the Bronx around 1:45 p.m. last Friday. They allegedly tried to snatch his gold chain. Mercedes fought back, and Caraballo allegedly stabbed him seven times before the two fled, leaving the detective bleeding on the sidewalk. Seven times. For a chain.
Mercedes was hospitalized but survived because the blade missed his vital organs. On Monday he was wheeled out of the hospital, then stood up and walked on his own in front of hundreds of cheering NYPD officers. If that’s not a movie scene, nothing is.
Both suspects are citizens of the Dominican Republic who crossed the southern border illegally in Arizona at different times and were released into the country by the Biden administration, according to Fox News. You couldn’t write a more on-the-nose example of open-border consequences if you tried. For more background on the stabbing of the NYPD detective, the full timeline makes for grim reading.
ICE had previously issued a detainer for Mejia, but city officials declined to honor it under New York City’s sanctuary policies, Fox News reported. Mejia had also received a deportation order last year. So the system flagged him, tried to remove him, and New York City said no thanks. He then allegedly helped stab a cop seven times. Sanctuary working exactly as advertised.
Caraballo’s record wasn’t clean either. He was arrested in July on a menacing charge after allegedly threatening to stab a person who rented him a room in the Bronx. He was also arrested in 2025 on a firearm possession charge after allegedly having a loaded .380 Taurus gun in his car. A real pillar of the community.
Both suspects will be returned to New York City to face attempted murder charges. Detective Mercedes is recovering. The two men who allegedly left him bleeding on a sidewalk spent five days in a basement before federal marshals dragged them out. Sometimes justice is slow. Sometimes it finds you in a crawl space in Massachusetts. Drop your thoughts in the comments or share this on social media.
