NYC parks worker charged with murder as a hate crime in killing of migrant

NEW YORK — A New York City parks worker accused of fatally shooting a man at a Brooklyn migrant camp has been charged with murder as a hate crime, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Authorities allege that Elijah Mitchell, 23, of Queens, was angry that migrants were living at Steuben Playground, where he was a temporary worker cleaning. They say he shot Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano, 30, of Venezuela, in the chest on July 21. The shooting happened three days after Mitchell and Rodriguez Marcano got into an argument at the park, prosecutors said.

“This premeditated and cold-blooded murder is outrageous on many levels, not least because the alleged motive was hatred toward newcomers to our city,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

On July 18, Mitchell allegedly began yelling and ripping off tarps at the camp, prosecutors said. Rodriguez Marcano confronted him and they got into an argument, authorities said. Mitchell then walked to a vehicle and returned with a gun in his waistband, which he showed to Rodriguez Marcano before being pulled away by other park employees, officials said.

Three days later, Gonzalez said, Mitchell returned to the park and shot Rodriguez Marcano.

Mitchell pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Wednesday. He is charged in the indictment with second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder, illegal possession of a weapon, menacing as a hate crime and menacing. Bail was set at $350,000 cash or $2.5 million surety, and he was ordered to return to court on Oct. 23.

Mitchell’s public defender did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday, and no one answered the phone at the public defender’s office late in the afternoon.