NYC vigilantes 'Guardian Angels' tackle New Yorker on live TV, misidentify him as migrant
Members of a New York vigilante group tackled a man they misidentified as a migrant during a live interview on Fox News on Tuesday.
The incident was captured as host Sean Hannity interviewed Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the anti-crime patrol group, live from Times Square during a segment meant to highlight crime and disorder in the city.
During the interview, the camera panned to show an off-screen interaction where group members donning their signature red berets and bomber jackets had confronted an unidentified man, pushed him to the sidewalk and placed him in a headlock.
“In fact, our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys on the corner of 42nd and 7th where all of this has taken place,” Sliwa told Hannity. Throwing his hands in the air, he added: “They’ve taken over!”
Silwa then said the man had "been shoplifting first, the Guardian Angels spotted him, stopped him, he resisted, and let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance. His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations."
"He’s sucking concrete, the cops scraped him off the asphalt, he’s on his way to jail, but they’ll cut him loose," Sliwa added. "We’ve got to take 42nd Street back, Sean. These illegals think they own this street. They think they rule the night. This is our country.
Former mayoral candidate:Democrat Eric Adams elected New York City mayor, defeats longshot Curtis Sliwa
Police say man was New Yorker from the Bronx
However, police told the Associated Press that the man was not a migrant, but a Bronx native. Police also did not provide any evidence to support Sliwa's allegation that the man was caught stealing.
The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment but a New spokesperson told the AP that officers arrived to find a man “detained by bystanders” after he allegedly tried to disrupt a live interview. The man was issued a disorderly conduct summons because he was acting in a loud and threatening manner on a public sidewalk, police said.
Police did not respond to the AP's question on whether any of the Guardian Angels, who have had a presence in the city since 1979, were under investigation for their role in the altercation.
Hochul: 'This is not the Wild West'
On Wednesday, Sliwa told NBC News that the altercation started because the man attacked a Guardian Angel, and the group responded by making a citizen arrest. He told the outlet his remarks on Fox News were based on the information he heard from those around him at the time.
"There’s like three guys rumbling with people in the crowd," he said. "But then they come up to the location of the broadcast as the broadcast is going on … and then the one guy socks a female Guardian Angel. Everyone who is behind me now goes rushing toward the location, and they take down the person who hit the Guardian Angel."
Sliwa told the AP that he presumed the man was a migrant because he was “speaking Spanish” and because other Guardian Angels had encountered him with other Spanish speakers on previous patrols.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed the televised incident.
"You cannot take the law into your own hands. NYPD, among the finest on this planet, they work hard every single day and we support them. It is their responsibility to take care of this, not individuals," Hochul said in a message to Sliwa and his group. "And so I reject the premise that anyone can take the law into their own hands. Then we have chaos. This is not the Wild West. This is New York State."