Two more suspects were arrested in connection to the stabbing death of a migrant man who was chased down and viciously attacked at the Randall’s Island tent city over the weekend, cops said.
Ferneys Horta, 33, was charged with murder and Anthony Navas, 27, with gang assault, when the NYPD nabbed them Monday – two days after Dafren Canizalez, 25, was knifed to death inside a cafeteria tent at the sprawling shelter, police said.
Moises Coronado, 27 – the suspected knifeman – was taken into custody immediately after the 7:30 p.m. Saturday slaying and charged with murder the next day, cops said.
Coronado said something to Canizalez’s girlfriend, leading to the deadly scuffle, according to prosecutors and sources.
The mob then allegedly chased Canizalez down, and cornered him against a door before Coronado allegedly stabbed him in the chest, according to the criminal complaint against the suspected killer.
Police recovered the knife at the scene, sources said.
Coronado was arraigned on murder and gang assault charges in Manhattan Criminal Court on Sunday night and ordered held without bail until his next hearing Friday.
He pleaded not guilty during that appearance, records show.
Arraignments for Horta and Navas were pending Tuesday.
Venezuelan immigrant Roger Castillo described Canizalez as a “good person” and “good friend,” adding that safety measures need to be ramped up at the shelter.
“There is not much security, and they are far away,” Castillo said of guards. “It happens so fast.”
Migrants at the makeshift shelter, which was erected last year to house the overflow of migrants flooding into the five boroughs from the US border, have been problematic, some asylum-seekers said.
They said some of the migrants around them have split into “camps” based on their ethnicity and native countries, with Hispanics, Africans and Haitians occasionally at odds, while many are armed with knives and typically petty crimes can be rampant.
In addition, rogue migrants who have timed out the 60-day residency limit within the 2,000-bed site have set up their own makeshift quarters on a grassy strip just outside the area.
“The problem is that you keep coming back,” a frustrated parks worker told a group of more than a dozen such migrants in Spanish Monday morning.
“You’re not putting a foot forward to get out of this situation. You keep coming back to the same place where you’re not helping yourself,” he said.
“Yes, you work for your family, to send money to your family. But you come back here doing things you’re not supposed to be doing. This is a public park.”
But the plea fell on deaf ears — and not long after, the rogue group set up folding tables against police barrier gates and used small propane burners to cook burgers, which they then sold to fellow migrants, along with coffee, hot chocolate, loose cigarettes and rolled marijuana joints.
Mayor Eric Adams told reporters Monday that the city would be setting up metal detectors and security cameras at the sprawling site and others.
“We’re doing a complete analysis of the security, beefing up our training, [putting] in place a few mobilization concepts, breaking down our location in a color-coded scheme,” he said at a press briefing Monday.
“In addition to the metal detectors, in the police department, and our team, we’re going to utilize visual technology. We’re going to put cameras in many of these sites in locations due to the quick response of a security team that’s there,” he added.
The city is already spending as much as $25,000 a day on security at shelters that are housing more than 68,000 migrants in its care, officials said.