Munchy migrant bites three NYPD cops in three separate incidents after shoplifting at Target: prosecutors
He has a taste for New York’s Finest.
A migrant serial shoplifter bit three NYPD police officers in three separate incidents after he was arrested for stealing clothes from a Manhattan Target, it was revealed in court Tuesday.
Ysmael Qintero, a Venezuelan migrant with 18 shoplifting busts since December 2023, was ordered held on $50,000 bail on charges of two counts of assaulting a police officer and petit larceny after allegedly sinking his teeth into police officers last week — leaving two officers wounded, Manhattan prosecutors said.
The munchy migrant first laid his fangs on a police officer after stealing three pairs of jeans and stuffing them into his backpack when he left the Target on West 44th St. and 10th Avenue at around 3:40 p.m. on June 9, sources said.
Qintero allegedly chomped on the officer’s forearm and elbow with so much force that blood dripped from the wound while in transit to the Midtown North Precinct, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Olivia Stevens told Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Rachel Pauley.
Just eight minutes later, the hangry Qintero took another munch at a different officer — this time on his leg and forearm — while inside the precinct at 3:48 p.m. the same day, Stevens said. Luckily, the officer was “only spared because the defendant bit him through his pants,” Stevens added.
Qintero was later transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital where another officer assigned to watch Qintero allegedly saw the suspect bang his head against the wall and spit in the hospital.
When the officer tried to intervene, the Dracula-like migrant took a bite at the officer’s right ring finger, causing substantial pain and bruising to the officer’s finger around 7:14 p.m., according to the criminal complaint.
“The defendant having already bitten two separate officers multiple times earlier in the day bit yet another officer at the hospital,” Foster said.
Two of the three bitten cops received treatment for their wounds, prosecutors said, who asked the judge to set bail at $75,000 cash.
Qintero’s attorney, Evan Rock of the Legal Aid Society, argued for his client to be let go on supervised release in order for him to get treatment.
“He is essentially a person in crisis,” Foster said, adding that Qintero is homeless and suffers from substance abuse disorder.
The defense attorney tried defending Qintero’s hospital outburst, saying that he suffered his own injuries from the arrest – but the judge wasn’t buying it.
“When you were arrested in this case, your response was to assault multiple police officers including officers who were trying to prevent you from hurting yourself in a hospital in New York,” the judge snapped at the snapper.
Qintero has remained on the streets despite racking up 18 petit larceny arrests, one misdemeanor conviction and five failures to appear in court in the past seven months. Those include a May 16 bust for allegedly swiping a bottle of cologne from a display at Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street, sources said.
He’s due back in court on June 14.
