08 January 2024 , 16:34
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A young father was stabbed to death at New York’s biggest migrant centre on Saturday in a clash over a woman.
Dafren Cabello, 24, from Venezuela, was attacked by four men after approaching a Peruvian man’s girlfriend, witnesses claim. Police were called to Randalls Island in the city's East River just before 7.30pm after the fatal clash broke out near the centre’s cafeteria.
“The fight was next to the dining room but they fought over a woman,” said Jose David. “The Venezuelan took the woman from the Peruvian, and the Peruvian stabbed the boy with Venezuelan nationality twice.”
Venezuelan immigrant Roger Castillo said of Dafren Cabello: “He was a good person, he was a good friend. There is not much security, and they are far away,”
Castillo said of the facility's security. “It happens so fast," he added.
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Randall’s Island tent city houses over 3,000 people (NYCLU/Twitter)Police recovered the knife at the scene and arrested a suspect following the deadly stabbing. Moises Coronado, 27, has been charged with second-degree murder and is currently being held at the Eric M Taylor Centre pending a court appearance at Manhatten Criminal Court on January 12.
The victim's brother Eduin Daniel Nobrega explained how he and Cabello crossed the border in Southern Texas last month. He told the NY Daily News: “I feel very bad knowing that my brother is dead. My brother was a good, responsible father, a good son and a good brother.
“One day we decided to leave our country of Venezuela for a better future, help our children and family. He was not a man of trouble. He really liked to work to earn an honest living.”
Concerns over knife crime are growing at NYC’s largest migrant centre, with one resident claiming “everyone has a knife.” Migrants living at the 3000-person centre have warned of ethnic and national divides growing within its walls.
New York City is building emergency shelters for migrants arriving from Texas and other border states. (AFP via Getty Images)Speaking to the New York Post Moroccan migrant Nabil Jajhlaq: “There are definitely camps. There is a lot of stealing, if you put your phone down or your charger for a moment, they take it immediately. Any of your stuff that you don't have they will take.”
The Centre first opened its doors last August in a bid to tackle a lack of housing for migrants arriving in New York ahead of the cold winter months.
“The overwhelming majority of migrants in our care came to our city in search of a better life and the American Dream,” a city hall spokesperson said following the attack, Gothamist reports.
“The small number of those disrupting that journey for the rest of the migrants in our care by acting violently will face enforcement to the fullest extent of the law.”
The deadly clash came just hours after a fight rocked the centre on East Seventh Street near Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan.
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