NYPD: Stabbing of Migrant Teenager Stemmed From Gang Beef

A 17-year-old asylum-seeker reportedly staying in the Roosevelt Hotel was stabbed to death in Lower Manhattan on Dec. 5, cops said, after a verbal dispute between two groups of teenagers who had also recently immigrated to New York. The media has since identified the victim as Yeremi Colino. Another teenager was stabbed in the arm and survived, cops say.

While initial reports indicated that the boy was targeted for not speaking English, the authorities now believe that this likely never happened, and that the altercation instead stemmed from a gang dispute. Three suspects are at large.

The stabbing occurred near 182 Broadway near John St. at around 7:42 p.m. Police now believe the victim may have initiated the contact between the two groups. Police said that Colino and two other teens confronted the suspects for flashing gang signs at them, with Colino seemingly brandishing something resembling a wooden stick. He was stabbed in the chest shortly thereafter, with a nearby Walgreens worker pulling him into the store as he bled profusely, as the knife was still sticking out of his chest. He was then rushed to Bellevue by EMS and pronounced dead. The suspects, including the boy who had stabbed Colino, then fled into the Fulton St. subway station.

The authorities believe that Colino and the two teens could have been members of “Los Diablos de 42,” a crew reputedly tied to the larger international gang Tren De Aragua (Aragua Train), which is based out of Venezuela and reportedly has some operations in the United States.

The “42” is apparently a reference to 42nd St., located near the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter, which Colino reportedly had an ID card for. Other reputed members of the “Los Diablos” crew have stayed there. Police believe that the three suspects are connected to a rival gang with roots in the Caribbean immigrant community.

NYPD Assistant Chief of Detectives Jason Savino said that video footage of the incident contradicted original reports that the incident was a hate crime, and that the authorities had arrived at the gang dispute motive from subsequent social media posts: “I also want to note, and this is just through the course of the investigation, that the Los Diablos crew of 42nd street did vow revenge on this...that obviously plays toward motive as well.”