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NYPD detective stabbed seven times over a gold chain. DHS says both suspects crossed illegally.

NYPD Detective Stabbed Seven Times Over a Gold Chain Walks Out. The Suspects Were Released at the Border.

by
M.A. Rothman

By M.A. RothmanOctober 11, 2026 · 5 min read
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An off-duty New York City police detective who was stabbed at least seven times fighting off two men who tried to rob him of his gold chain has gone home. The two men police say did it were in custody in Massachusetts, waiting to be sent back to New York. Federal authorities say both had crossed the border illegally and were released into the country under the Biden administration.

Detective Jose Mercedes, 33, is a 10-year NYPD veteran assigned to the 44th Precinct in the Bronx. On the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, he was off duty, at the open trunk of his car on East 208th Street in the Norwood section of the Bronx, when two men on an e-bike went for the chain around his neck.

He fought back

Mercedes did not hand it over. According to the NYPD, he fought back and was stabbed at least seven times, with wounds that news reports placed in his neck, torso and leg, before the attackers fled on the bike. Despite his wounds, he chased them on foot for about two blocks before he collapsed near Rochambeau Avenue and East 206th Street, according to reports by the New York Daily News and PIX11. Video obtained by the Daily News showed police helping paramedics lift him onto a gurney, with blood on the curb.

He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center. Mayor Zohran Mamdani went to the hospital that day, and the city canceled a crime-statistics press conference that had been scheduled for that afternoon. “I am hoping for his quick and complete recovery,” Mamdani said.

On Monday, Oct. 5, Mercedes left the hospital. Dozens of officers lined the exit, applauding as bagpipes played. He was wheeled out, then stood up and gave the crowd a thumbs-up. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the moment: “Today, in another incredible feat of strength and determination, Detective Mercedes got up from his wheelchair and walked out of Jacobi Medical Center on his own two feet.” She added: “Despite his serious injuries, Detective Mercedes chased after his attackers on foot.”

By phone on Saturday, Oct. 10, he told the Post: “I’m feeling much better, thank you.”

Five days on the run

The NYPD identified the suspects as D’Angelo Caraballo, 25, who police say did the stabbing, and Sneider Mejia, 24, who police say drove the bike. The case went to the U.S. Marshals Service’s New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, and investigators determined the two men had left the New York area together.

On the night of Tuesday, Oct. 6, NYPD detectives assigned to the Marshals task force, with support from the Boston Regional Fugitive Task Force, found them hiding in the basement of a house in Lynn, Massachusetts. The NYPD’s message afterward, posted on X, was simple: “If you come for one of us, you’ll have the full force of the NYPD coming for you.”

Dennis Matulewicz, who heads the Marshals Service in the District of Massachusetts, put it this way: “The attempted murder of an off-duty NYPD detective is an attack on every member of law-enforcement.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, the two men were arraigned in Lynn District Court on fugitive-from-justice charges. According to the Boston Globe, both pleaded not guilty, waived extradition and were committed to the Essex County House of Correction pending their return to New York; Fox News reported they were ordered held without bail. Police say they are expected to face attempted murder charges once they are returned to New York. Both are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Released at the border, released again in New York

Here is the part city officials would rather not discuss. According to the Department of Homeland Security, as reported by the Boston Globe, both men are from the Dominican Republic and entered the United States illegally through Arizona. Border Patrol arrested Mejia in December 2022 and Caraballo in February 2023. Both were released from immigration custody during the Biden administration. DHS says Mejia received a final order of removal in December 2025.

Neither man was a stranger to the justice system. Commissioner Tisch said Caraballo had two prior incidents in New York City that led to criminal charges and that Mejia had no criminal record in the city. DHS tells a different story about Mejia, saying he has been charged with four crimes, including a 2024 arrest on gun charges. The Daily Wire reported that Caraballo was arrested in July on a menacing charge after allegedly threatening to stab a person who rented him a room.

Whether immigration authorities had a chance to stop this is disputed. Fox News, citing DHS, reported that ICE lodged a detainer on Mejia and that New York City declined to honor it under its sanctuary policies. The Globe, also citing DHS, reported that ICE had filed no detainers before New York authorities released the men. Either way, two men who had crossed illegally, one of them under a final deportation order, were free on a Bronx street that Friday afternoon.

What it says about the system

New York police are not required to hold anyone solely on an ICE detainer, which is a civil immigration request, not a criminal warrant. That is exactly the problem. A city that treats federal immigration enforcement as optional ends up relying on luck, and on Oct. 2, the luck ran out on a cop who was simply cleaning out his car.

Mercedes survived because he is tough and because, as the Daily Wire reported, the blade missed his vital organs. The detectives who hunted down the suspects did their jobs. The question is why the system let two men who entered the country illegally, one of them under a standing removal order, stay in New York long enough for any of it to happen.

A detective took seven stab wounds for a gold chain and walked out on his own two feet, and the men accused of doing it should never have been in the country to begin with.

Sources

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