Man roughed up by Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels in Times Square during a shock live TV broadcast was an innocent bystander and not a migrant shoplifter as vigilante group claimed, NYPD reveals

The “Venezuelan migrant shoplifter,” a vigilante group tackled during a live TV interview in Times Square, was actually an American from the Bronx.

Failed New York City mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa was speaking to his “Guardian Angels” with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday as his men ran away.

“Our guys just took down one of the immigrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and 7th while all this was going on,” he said on screen alone at 9:30 p.m.

Hannity asked to point the camera at the action, and he panned to see the Guardian Angels push a man to the ground and then tackle him.

However, the NYPD said the man was neither a migrant nor a shoplifter, and was charged with disorderly conduct for trying to disrupt the interview.

Instead, he was a 23-year-old American citizen who moved to the US at the age of 10 and lives in the Bronx.

“Police responded to a 911 call of a disorderly man… upon arrival, officers observed a man being restrained by bystanders,” the NYPD told DailyMail.com.

‘Officers were advised that the man had repeatedly attempted to disrupt and disrupt a live television interview. The man was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.”

Police did not say whether any of the Guardian Angels were arrested for assaulting the man, among three dozen arrests around Times Square that evening.

Silwa later claimed the man was tackled for punching a female member of his group in the face, but provided no evidence.

“There’s like three guys messing around with people in the crowd. But then they come to the broadcast location while the broadcast is on,” he said NBC.

‘Then that one man attracts a female guardian angel. Everyone behind me is now rushing to the location and they are taking down the person who hit the Guardian Angel.”

He said he claimed on camera that the man was a shoplifter based solely on the statements of other people in the crowd, and because he supposedly had a backpack with “baby clothes with tags on them” in it.

Sliwa later claimed on the Fox News broadcast that the man had been seen shoplifting, and they roughly threw him to the ground when he “resisted.”

“The Guardian Angels saw him, stopped him, he resisted and let’s say we gave him a little pain relief,” he said.

‘His mother in Venezuela felt the tremors. He’s sucking concrete, the cops scraped him off the asphalt, he’s on his way to jail, but they’re going to cut him loose.”

“We need to take back 42nd Street. These illegals think they own this street, they think they are in charge of the night. This is our country. If they can’t follow the rules, we’ll kick them back from where they came.”

Sliwa complained that the NYPD takes a “hands-off” approach to crime, and that despite not being law enforcement officers, they want to make migrants “pay.”

“You shoplift, you commit a crime, you assault people, you don’t belong in our country and we will make sure you pay a price for that,” he said.

“We have to fight for what we know is right, and you saw a little piece of this. They got a taste of what the Guardian Angels will do to rid Times Square of them.”

Sliwa recently found himself on the wrong side of the law, being arrested last August during an anti-immigration rally outside Mayor Eric Adams’ office.

His group was involved in a brawl between protesters and counter-protesters and crossed police barriers after being warned not to do so.

A week earlier, he was arrested during another anti-immigration protest outside a new asylum center.

Sliwa admitted in 1992 that he had faked at least six crimes that his group had supposedly foiled, including a robbery, to gain publicity.

The New York monument has been the scene of other ugly scenes in recent months, sometimes involving confirmed migrants.

Police officers were attacked as they tried to disperse a disorderly group in front of 220 West 42 Street on January 27 around 8:30 p.m.

According to the NYPD, the migrants then began attacking them, kicking their heads and bodies as the two officers attempted to pin one of the men down and remove his sweatshirt.

The migrants then ran away, leaving the police officers on the ground as they fled east on 42nd Street toward Seventh Avenue.

Darwin Andres Gomez Izquiel, 19, Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19, Wilson Juarez, 21, Yorman Reveron, 24, Jhoan Boada, 22, and Yohenry Brito, 24, were all later arrested.

They were charged with assault on a police officer, gang assault, obstruction of government administration and disorderly conduct, but were released without bail.

The same group has also been linked to a migrant crime in which more than 60 women were targeted and their phones stolen. During one of the thefts, a woman was dragged by a moped while suspects took her phone.

Seven migrants were arrested by the NYPD after allegedly committing a crime in which they stole wallets and phones from at least 62 women across the five boroughs.

Police arrested at least seven migrants, all believed to be from Venezuela, at a safe house in the Bronx after executing a search warrant.

Police believe the gang is led by Venezuelan leader Victor Parra, 30. He had a tech hack into the phones, use the devices to make fraudulent purchases and empty the victim’s bank accounts before sending them to Colombia.

“As you saw in yesterday’s heist — where the proceeds are shipped to Miami, Houston and ultimately Colombia — they’re a little more sophisticated because they’re hacking into people’s phones and stealing people’s banking information,” NYPD said. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

Kenny added that the gangs were able to gain access to people’s Venmo, Zelle and other money transfer accounts before making purchases, transferring money to other accounts or withdrawing money.

Once the accounts are cleared, they ship the phones overseas and sell them, Kenny said.