Migrant squatters lived in Bronx home with guns, drugs across from school: police
NORWOOD, the Bronx (PIX11) — NYPD officers could be seen on neighborhood surveillance video responding to a report of a man with a gun on Hull Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx last Wednesday.
Neighbor Al Munoz, who’s lived on the block for 40 years, said he was home when police arrested seven men and a woman from the basement of the home at 3259 Hull Ave., which is located directly across the street from an elementary school.
Police said investigators also found a 7-year-old child in that same basement, along with several guns, boxes of ammunition, ketamine and cocaine.
“With the noise, you know those motorcycles are very noisy, they would wake me up. The problem is they were squatters. It’s a rental property for him. I think they moved in without his knowledge,” said Munoz.
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Munoz said the migrants have been living there for months, adding the investment property owner no longer lives on the block.
“When you’re a landlord, you have to make sure these things don’t happen,” said John, who lives a few doors down the block.
The bust once again involved suspects with a recent criminal history who are now back in trouble with the law.
A spokesperson for Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said one of the men – 24-year-old Venezuelan migrant Javier Alborno – is still under indictment following his arrest for gun possession last September at the same Bronx address, adding that at the time prosecutors requested $10,000 cash bail.
But that spokesperson said the judge in September’s case chose to instead put Alborno on supervised release.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell spoke about the case on the PIX11 Morning News on Tuesday.
“Why are our cops there a second time? They shouldn’t be in that position. We have to have a discussion as to why they were out of jail,” said Chell.
Chell said another one of the men arrested in last week’s bust was arrested and charged last year with attempted murder, but he added the case was ultimately dismissed after the victim in the case refused to cooperate.
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