Park worker in New York charged with murder of migrant woman

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

Authorities allege Elijah Mitchell, 23, of Queens, was upset because migrants were living at Steuben Playground, which he was hired to clean as a temporary worker. They said he shot Arturo Jose Rodriguez Marcano, 30, of Venezuela, in the chest on July 21. The shooting occurred 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, prosecutors say Mitchell began yelling and tearing down tarps from the camp. Rodriguez Marcano confronted him and an argument ensued, authorities said. Mitchell then went to a vehicle and returned with a gun in his waistband, which he showed Rodriguez Marcano before being dragged 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 at a court hearing Wednesday. The indictment charges him with second-degree murder as a hate crime, second-degree murder, illegal possession of a weapon, menacing as a hate crime and uttering a threat. Bail was set at $350,000 cash or $2.5 million surety bond and he was ordered to appear in court on October 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.