Man subdued by Guardian Angels on national TV responds for first time

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TIMES SQUARE, Manhattan (PIX11) — He was subdued by at least a half-dozen members of the Guardian Angels, and was called a “shoplifter” and a “migrant” by the leader and founder of the volunteer security group, all on national television. The television host now says that none of those descriptions was true, and law enforcement officials agree. The man who was seized in the incident is now pursuing what his lawyer calls justice for him, in the wake of the incident last month.

At a news conference outside of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Marco Piña, 22, stood next to two people representing him — his attorney, Patricia Lynch, and community activist Fernando Mateo. Joining them were two other men, Sergio Rodriguez and Ricardo Cuautle, friends of Piña.

The three friends had been together the night of Feb. 6, when the takedown happened, in Times Square.

It was during a broadcast of the Sean Hannity show on the Fox News Channel. Hannity was interviewing Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels’ leader and founder, about migrants and crime in New York. Sliwa was on camera, surrounded by members of his group, known for their red and white jackets and red berets.

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About halfway through the interview, the members of the group cleared out, ostensibly to pursue a suspect. Sliwa said they were after a shoplifting migrant. It was Piña.

There was no evidence that he’d shoplifted, according to the NYPD, which also said that Piña is a longtime Bronx resident and not a migrant. Hannity, the broadcast host, has also said that Piña is not a shoplifter or migrant.

At the Tuesday news conference, Piña’s advisors said that he was not commenting publicly, but was on scene for meetings with prosecutors, who are investigating the case. When asked why there may have been suspicion on the part of the Guardian Angels and Sliwa regarding Piña, Mateo, the community activist, was blunt about the organization’s founder.

“It’s what he does he does for a living. He makes [stuff] up, in order to get publicity,” Mateo said, using an expletive.

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“In order to get this,” Mateo continued, pointing to the cameras in response to the incident, “he makes things up.”

Piña’s attorney said that she and her client were considering filing a civil suit in the case, that’s under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

As part of the district attorney’s probe, its prosecutors called Piña in for an interview. His attorney said that it showed that law enforcement was looking into wrongdoing by the Guardian Angels.

“We intend to pursue justice to the fullest extent of the law,” Lynch, Piña’s attorney, said. “We appreciate the D.A.’s office, that they are investigating this, and that they are going after the people that should be gone after,” she said.

For his part, Sliwa did not comment, but instead had his publicist, his sister Maria Sliwa, respond. In a statement, she said that Piña and his two friends physically harassed the camera crew that was shooting the broadcast. The publicist also referred to a video recorded by a Guardian Angel member who’d been at the scene when the incident happened.

That Guardian Angel member, Kimberly Torres, said that Piña had been physically aggressive toward the camera crew, and she tried to de-escalate the situation.

When she did, she said, he “took his hands, put all his might and all his force, pushed me. I went back and at that point, the Guardian Angels saw me hurt, [and] they came to my defense.”

The Guardian Angels said that Piña beat Torres in the breasts intentionally and that they believe he targeted her physically because she’s a hijab-wearing Muslim woman.

Mateo said that his client had done nothing wrong and that Sliwa and the Guardian Angels had escalated the situation, rather than de-escalate it.

“If someone stood behind me right now and started going like this,” Mateo said, as he waved, “does that give me the right to ask a bunch of my friends to take him down? Absolutely not.”

The district attorney’s office said that the case is still under investigation.

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