A suspected Venezuelan gang member was arrested in Manhattan this week after cops said he robbed a city prosecutor who caught him touching himself in her apartment building.
New York City police said Wednesday they charged Brandon Simosa, 25, with sexually motivated robbery, burglary and additional drug and theft charges in the incident that happened over the weekend inside the victim’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment building.
Authorities said Mr. Simosa was touching himself in a building hallway around 2 a.m. Sunday when the victim, a line prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, caught him in the act.
The suspect followed and asked the woman for money, police said, then further exposed himself to her. The victim dropped her phone following the lewd act, and Mr. Simosa grabbed it and ran off.
Police linked the suspect to the robbery by tracing the victim’s cellphone, the NYPD said.
Officers arrested the suspect Tuesday evening near a Midtown hotel that’s housing migrants.
Authorities said Mr. Simosa is a member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang that has flooded the U.S. through the country’s porous southern border. The gang has established itself in cities such as Denver, Chicago, New York, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Police said the suspect has been arrested six times this year alone, including for assault and robbery.
Mr. Simosa is in the country illegally and is believed to have arrived last year.
He was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan criminal court.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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