Federal officials are pointing the finger at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio after an illegal immigrant allegedly killed a 92-year-old Queens woman.
Reeaz Khan, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Guyana, is charged with two counts each of second-degree murder and first-degree sexual abuse.
“It is made clear that New York City’s stance against honoring detainers is dangerously flawed,” said Thomas Decker, the ICE New York field office director of enforcement and removal operations. “It was a deadly choice to release a man on an active ICE detainer back onto the streets after his first arrest included assault and weapon charges, and he now faces new charges, including murder. New York City’s sanctuary policies continue to threaten the safety of all residents of the five boroughs, as they repeatedly protect criminal aliens who show little regard for the laws of this nation.”
ICE says they lodged a detainer against Khan on Nov. 27 after he was apprehended for assaulting his father during a fight in their home.
Police charged Khan with misdemeanor assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and harassment. He was then released without bail.
Six weeks later, Khan was arrested in connection with the sexual assault and murder of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes.
Fuertes was found with her clothes pulled above her waist on a Queens sidewalk around 2 a.m. on Jan. 6. Authorities believe she had been lying in the street in 32-degree weather for roughly two hours after being sexually assaulted and strangled. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from injuries that included a broken spine, court papers show.
Khan admitted to lifting up Fuertes’s skirt and trying to rape her, said Assistant District Attorney Joseph Grasso at the Guyanese national’s arraignment.
“It was only a matter of time before this would happen,” a retired Brooklyn detective told the New York Post. “Maria Fuertes’ blood is on Mayor de Blasio’s hands.”
