At a press conference Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said a “meticulous” multiagency review determined two officers were assaulted after they told a group of young men outside a Midtown shelter to disperse, and one refused.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the group was impeding pedestrians outside the shelter on W. 42nd St. near Seventh Ave. when 24-year-old Yohenry Brito — who’s being held on Rikers Island — became hostile.

“Everybody disperses except for Mr. Brito. He turned around and got confrontational with the police officers,” Kenny said. “He refused a lawful order, they attempted to place him under arrest, and the melee began with the officers trying to take Mr. Brito into custody, and the next thing you know, they’re being attacked by 13 other people. So that’s how it started.”

Footage released hours after the press conference appears to conflict with that narrative and claims that the group was blocking pedestrians while gathered by concrete dividers near the curb.

“Hey! Por favor! Como esta. Vamos. West 41! West 41! Go to West 41! Move! Vamos!” one of the cops is heard saying.

The video shows most of the group immediately complying, singing in unison as they walk away. But Brito lags behind and ignores the officers while looking at his phone, then gets confrontational with a cop who tries to nudge him along.

“Don’t touch me,” Brito says in Spanish more than once.

As Brito walks away, he stops to retrieve a baby stroller on the sidewalk. Body-cam footage shows him pushing the stroller and starting to walk away from the cops again before quipping in Spanish that one of the officers looked like the fictional TV character “Ugly Betty.” NYPD Lt. Ben Kurian then grabs him by the scruff of the neck and throws him up against a wall.

In the footage captured by the lieutenant’s bodycam, Brito repeatedly asks what is happening in Spanish. The situation quickly escalates as Brito tries to escape Kurian’s grasp, with both tumbling to the ground in seconds.

Officer Zunxu Tian then intervenes, and several of those with Brito descend on the two cops and repeatedly grab and kick them as they grapple with Brito on the ground, various pieces of footage show.

Neither of the officers was seriously injured, according to the NYPD. In the immediate aftermath, one of them is heard on body cam footage telling a colleague the fight started when they sought to “clear out” the migrants from the front of the shelter.

In all, seven of the 11 asylum seekers suspected of involvement have been indicted on a range of charges carrying significant prison time. Prosecutors are looking to speak with five unindicted suspects.

A spokesperson for the Legal Aid Society, representing Yorman Reveron, one of the initial arrestees, said his lawyers were still probing what happened but that the bodycam footage suggests charges should be dropped against the 24-year-old who’s been “fully compliant with the court’s conditions” since his release under supervision. Reveron is accused of grabbing one of the officers, pulling him away from the struggle with Brito, and pushing both cops to the ground.

“Late last night, we were finally provided discovery by the DA’s office, including body worn camera footage and other evidence,” Redmond Haskins said. “On its face, the footage directly contradicts the narrative peddled by law enforcement. We are still conducting our investigation and review, but based on this footage, these charges should have never been brought against our client.”

The whereabouts are unknown of two of those indicted accused of playing a more direct role, like kicking and grabbing the officers while they wrestled with Brito, who fled the scene and was arrested days later and held on $15,000 cash bail or a $50,000 bond. His attorney couldn’t be reached.

Some of those hit with felony charges in the indictments unsealed Thursday include two members of the group who aren’t accused of touching either officer. Kelvin Servita Arocha, 19, faces more than seven years in prison if convicted of assault and obstructing government administration for allegedly kicking an officer’s radio. Authorities now say Wilson Juarez — accused initially of assault — watched from the sidelines and changed sweaters with someone afterwards. He could serve up to four years if found guilty of tampering with physical evidence.

Juarez’s attorney said the newly released footage directly contradicted what law enforcement said about anyone in the group refusing to comply with the dispersal order, noting the initial version of events had already been altered to clear her 24-year-old client of assault allegations.

“Originally, Mr. Juarez was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer, and his name and picture spread all over the media outlets,” Adrienne Edward said.

Edward said the deluge of media coverage couldn’t be taken back and lamented elected officials exploiting the hot-button issues for political gain.

“This case has garnered so much media attention and the politicians are using it as part of their reelection,” Edwards said.

Asked Friday to clarify what prosecutors believe Brito did to prompt being grabbed by the lieutenant, Bragg’s spokesman Doug Cohen declined to expand on what’s in the charging papers — which say he had declined to comply with orders to disperse, contrary to the newly released footage. A spokesperson for the police department did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident set off a media frenzy and led police unions and right-wing groups to call on DA Bragg to resign for not seeking bail for the suspects initially charged and Gov. Hochul to call on authorities to “get them all and send them back” to their native countries.

When asked about the conflicting information presented by the police footage on Friday, the governor said she wouldn’t “second guess” the information the DA has “in making sure that we take people who have committed crimes off the streets.”

With Chris Sommerfeldt and Liam Quigley

The Puerto Rican eatery, located in a remote industrial section of Westchester Square, is owned by Richard Caban, the brother of NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban. The establishment has for the past few years gained a reputation as a hangout for Adams, who celebrated his birthday there last year, other high-profile elected leaders, including State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, as well as top NYPD brass, including Commissioner Caban and Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey.

But Con Sofrito has since 2022 faced a bevy of open building and fire safety violations over a sprawling “party room” it erected in its parking lot during the pandemic without proper permits. The restaurant’s landlord, a corporate entity named 1315 Commerce LLC, sued Richard Caban in Bronx Civil Court over the party room in October after it refused to dismantle the illegal structure, a development first reported last month by the news outlet The City.

In a previously unreported development, Jamie Schreck, an attorney for the landlord, filed court papers in that case last week saying Richard Caban had finally agreed to break down the party room by March 1 — and close Con Sofrito for good by Aug. 31.

In addition, Caban agreed as part of a settlement to cough up $14,000 to cover Schreck’s attorney fees and continue to pay rent through the final date of Con Sofrito’s occupancy, the court papers show. The presiding judge, Betty Lugo, approved the settlement in a decision released on the court docket Friday.

Speaking to the Daily News on Friday afternoon, Schreck said his client is pleased with the settlement and looking to find a new tenant who’s not in the hospitality industry.

“What he told me is that he’s done with restaurants after this,” Schreck said, referring to Joseph Dedona III, the manager of the corporate landlord entity. “He’s fed up with the restaurant industry.”

The settlement might not spell the absolute end of Con Sofrito, though.

“They want to find a new location and a new liquor license,” Schreck said of Caban and his Con Sofrito partners.

An attorney for Richard Caban did not immediately return a request for comment, nor did a spokesman for the mayor.

The illegal party room that sparked the court feud has been featured prominently in photos and videos posted to Instagram by Jimmy Rodriguez, an infamous Bronx restaurateur who lists himself online as the “manager” and “creator” of Con Sofrito.

Rodriguez posted videos and photos in September from the mayor’s 63rd birthday party — which was held in the party room.

Rodriguez used to run Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe, a popular club shuttered in 2004 after coming under suspicion of being a hotbed for gang and drug activity. In the 1990s, Major League Baseball officials warned Yankees players to stay away from Jimmy’s after two shootings took place in front of the club.

Rodriguez did not return a request for comment Friday.

Guardian Angel Kimberly Torres filed a harassment complaint against the 22-year-old man, who was surrounded and strong-armed to the ground during a live Fox News interview focusing on the city’s migrant crisis that Sean Hannity conducted with Sliwa this week.

In a video released Friday on X, Torres, who identifies herself as a Mexican, a mother and a Muslim, said she was trying to “deescalate the situation” when the Bronxite shoved her.

“He was aggressive, very angry,” Torres explained, getting emotional at times during the video, which she recorded in both English and Spanish. “He took his hands with all his might and all his force pushed me. I went back. At that point, the Guardian Angels saw me hurt. They came to my defense.”

Torres, who wears a Muslim headscarf under her red Guardian Angels beret, is behind Sliwa during the segment and can be seen confronting the pedestrian before the takedown.

https://x.com/CurtisSliwa/status/1755787779538051296

As the altercation was filmed, Sliwa identified the man as a “migrant” and a “shoplifter,” although neither were true.

“Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner — 42nd [St.] and Seventh [Ave.],” The 2021 GOP mayoral candidate said. “Let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance. His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He’s sucking concrete.”

The 22-year-old eventually received a summons for disorderly conduct.

Surveillance video contradicted what Sliwa said. The man the Angels roughed up “may have been a little bit drunk, but he was just trying to make his way down Seventh Ave. when Sliwa’s goons stopped him,” a police source with knowledge of the case said. “He tried to push past them and they strong-arm him to the ground,”

A high-ranking NYPD police official said Torres was recorded on body worn camera saying she didn’t want to file a complaint right after the incident, although she has every right to change her mind and file a complaint at a later date.

It was not immediately clear if the man was facing harassment charges Friday.

Police were continuing to painstakingly investigate every aspect of the incident, from the man and the Guardian Angels’ actions to steps taken by responding officers, the police official said.

“It’s a very thorough investigation,” the source said.

Facing a torrent of controversy over his flippant flub, Sliwa gave a half-hearted apology over calling the man a migrant.

“I apologize for miss characterizing the man’s citizenship status, misunderstanding what had caused Guardian Angels to step in,” Sliwa said on X Friday. “The organization and its members would not stand by when someone has hurt a woman, while creating an unsafe situation for all.”

Feb. 9, 2024: Prime time vigilantes

Sliwa, a conservative talk radio staple, has courted controversy throughout his time in the limelight.

In 1992, he admitted to having faked several crimes years earlier, including his own kidnapping, to gain publicity and spotlight dangers in the subway system.

This week’s incident added fuel to already high tensions in New York City as officials struggle to handle an ongoing rise in migrant arrivals for more than a year.

A group of migrants attacked two NYPD officers outside a shelter in Times Square on Jan. 27, sparking outrage.

There’s also been heated debate over the city’s shelter and benefits policies for the new arrivals. A growing number of progressives have voiced concern over the prospect of anti-migrant bigotry sweeping the city.

The Guardian Angels, which Sliwa launched in the 1970s to fight rampant subway crime, have long had a tense relationship with police.

City progressives have called for the tables to be turned on the Angels, with some saying they committed a hate crime, but Sliwa rejected the suggestion Friday.

“No Guardian Angel, a majority minority organization, would ever have provoked an attack based on who someone is or where they came from,” he said. “They responded to a man intentionally being disruptive, aggressive towards film crew members, the crowd and unfortunately put his hands on a female.”

Declyn Lauper, 26, was nabbed minutes after a shooting on W. 112th St. near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. that was reported around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

A 24-year-old man was shot in the leg and taken to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital in stable condition.

Lauper possessed a fanny pack that contained the Glock, which had seven bullets in its magazine, said a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.

The complaint says Lauper possessed the weapon “with intent to use it unlawfully against another.”

Also arrested in the gunfire was Omar Lewin, 24, of Washington Heights. Information about Lewin’s case was not immediately available.

Lauper was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a firearm, and Manhattan prosecutors sought bail of $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond.

But a criminal court judge set lower bail, at $20,000 cash and $100,000 bond.

Lauper’s family posted cash bail, and he walked out of court with his lawyer.

Lauper’s arrest was not the first for the troubled son of the ’80s pop star, who won a Tony Award for writing the music in the Broadway show “Kinky Boots.”

In July 2022, police found Lauper sitting in the driver’s seat of a stolen car, the Daily News reported at the time.

Cops noticed the illegally double-parked 2014 Mercedes-Benz C350 at the corner of W. 140th St. and Broadway in Hamilton Heights. They determined the vehicle was stolen, police said.

Lauper was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle in that incident.

Lauper, who raps under the name Dex Lauper, lives on the Upper West Side. He is the only child of Cyndi Lauper.

US-ENTERTAINMENT-MUSIC-MTV-AWARD

The shooter was with two other teens inside JD Sports on the corner of W. 42nd St. and Broadway when security started eyeing him around 7 p.m., a store employee told the Daily News.

When the trio tried to leave the store, a guard stopped them at the door. One of the teenagers walked outside, but two stayed.

As the guard talked to the duo, she took a shopping bag one of them was holding. Inside was a coat the teens were trying to steal.

“He was trying to steal and [security] were trailing him,” said JD Sports employee Hewitt Jackson. “They tried to take the bag from him and he pulled a gun and tried to shoot a security guard.”

The security guard ducked and the bullet hit a woman shopping nearby, according to a Danish tourist.

“I was standing right next to her,” Lone Hanson, 62, told The News. “She was just shopping with her girlfriend. I heard a boom and she was shot.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Hanson added. “It’s my first day in New York.”

The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the left leg. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

“She was standing there saying, ‘Help, Help,’” said a witness who did not want to be named. “I took her shirt off of her and tied it to her leg.”

“I was asking her if everything was OK and she said she doesn’t speak English,” the woman added. “She was from Brazil.

Staffers at the store ushered shoppers, including the wounded woman, into the back room while police rushed to the scene.

“I was shocked,” said the witness. “People were running and I started to panic.”

The gunman ran outside, where he met an accomplice who had walked out of the store before the shooting. Also outside was a police officer who ran after the robbers but began to have trouble breathing during the chase.

He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell in stable condition, the sources added.

At some point during the chase, one of them fired shots at officers but struck no one, police sources said.

The teens continued running north, leaving behind a trail of clothes at W. 48th St. and Sixth Ave. to W. 51st and Sixth Ave., police sources said.

Cops are still searching for them.

Antony Battle, 46, was in the bar at Luxor New York Restaurant on the corner of Tenth Ave. and W. 203rd St. in Inwood on Jan. 27 when he got into an argument with a 33-year-old man over a spilled drink, cops said.

The disagreement boiled over and Battle, of the Bronx, pointed a gun at the victim and fired several times.

The man was shot once in the abdomen. He survived the bizarre attack.

Battle took off but was arrested Wednesday and charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

He has numerous prior arrests in the city including for drug possession, aggravated harassment and assault.

Battle’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Thursday.

Thursday’s procedural step came in the form of a resolution authorizing the speaker to pursue legal action on behalf of the full Council to compel the mayor to implement the laws, which are designed to expand access to CityFHEPS, a voucher program subsidizing rent for low-income New Yorkers. The measure breezed through the Council in a voice vote with overwhelming support.

With the resolution adopted, the speaker wouldn’t say what form any legal action against the mayor will take, though, or when it might be initiated.

“There has been no final decision yet on any legal action,” she told reporters. “But this maintains our ability to keep our options open, that’s what the resolution does.”

Among other provisions, the laws in dispute would expand access to CityFHEPS by eliminating a rule requiring that otherwise income-eligible individuals must enter a homeless shelter before they can apply for a voucher. By scrapping that rule, Council Democrats have argued the city can prevent more New Yorkers from becoming homeless.

The Council enacted the laws last summer by overriding the mayor’s vetoes of them. Nonetheless, the mayor didn’t implement the laws by a legally mandated Jan. 9 deadline, arguing the city can’t shoulder the added cost that would come with them.

After Thursday’s resolution vote, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak reiterated that argument, saying “this legislation will add $17 billion onto the backs of our taxpayers” — a figure Council Democrats argue is exaggerated.

The speaker’s reluctance to talk about what exactly her next step will be on the legal front comes as others are also mulling court action over the CityFHEPS matter.

The Legal Aid Society, which by law represents the city’s homeless population, said last month it would file a lawsuit against the mayor to force him to implement the CityFHEPS laws. At the time, a Council spokesman said the speaker was eyeing legal action, too, and that it wasn’t clear whether she would bring her own lawsuit or join Legal Aid’s filing.

A spokesman for the Legal Aid Society declined to comment after Thursday’s vote.

Sliwa, who erroneously identified the Bronxite as a Venezuelan migrant during a live interview Tuesday night on national TV, admitted to the Daily News Thursday he could have been “milder and calmer” during the episode caught live on FOX News cameras.

But his group’s actions during the attack and Sliwa’s on-camera comments sparked anger and outrage across NYC Thursday.

“Washed-up comic book villain instructed his herd of wannabe vigilantes to beat up a guy they decided ‘looked like’ a migrant. A hate crime,” Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan wrote on X. “Live on TV. Violence of any kind, whether against cops or innocent people in Times Sq, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

“The wheels of justice must move at an appropriate pace. We don’t have the luxury to do what we saw Curtis Sliwa did,” Mayor Adams, Sliwa’s opponent in the 2021 mayoral election, said at an unrelated press briefing with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “To see someone on the corner and, based on their ethnicity, automatically identify them as a migrant or asylum seeker, and not a long-time Bronx resident — that is not what we can do. We have to get it right.”

Adams and Brannan were far from the only ones to tag Sliwa.

On CNN Thursday morning, Gov. Hochul said no one should take the law into their own hands.

“This is not the Wild West. This is New York State,” Hochul said.

Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller and possible Democratic mayoral candidate in 2025, described Sliwa’s antics as “racism” and said he looked forward to meeting him on the debate stage.

“This kind of racism has no place in our city. Unfortunately, Curtis Sliwa went to his usual worst instincts,” Stringer said. “I look forward as a potential Democratic nominee to debating this warmed-over MAGA Republican in 2025.”

While some politicos claimed the attack was motivated by hate and racism, Bragg was not ready to call it a hate crime but did call the incident “disturbing.”

“We’re going to do what we do on all of our matters, right?” Bragg said at the briefing with Adams. “So I think there are people speculating and using a legal phrase in [using] ‘hate crime.’ We don’t make assumptions, we investigate and look at the evidence, so we’ll do what we do in all the other matters — follow the facts.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards chalked the incident up to Sliwa’s typical fear mongering.

“This is classic Curtis Sliwa: in the mud, stoking division in New York City. And it’s shameful that he would believe that because someone speaks Spanish, they’re a migrant,” Richards said. “I’m hoping people like Curtis realize our diversity is our strength.”

In an afternoon press conference at City Hall, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the “actions by Mr. Sliwa and his group” amounted to “fear-mongering” against migrants.

“Seeing incidents and occurrences like that certainly does not help the climate of the city right now. It actually does a lot of harm, creates a lot of confusion, a lot of anger,” she said.

Everyday New Yorkers also slammed Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels in the 1970s when crime was raging in the Big Apple and has been one of the more vocal critics chiding the city over its handling of the migrant crisis.

Desiree Joy Frias, a mutual aid volunteer, said she wasn’t surprised by the fracas or that Sliwa was wrong about the man’s background.

“This is not new behavior. They used to take down Black and brown people all the time in the 70s and 80s,” she said. “That people feel that they can handle things extra judiciously — that’s terrifying.”

Sliwa, who spoke to The News before going to a dermatologist appointment, didn’t seemed too fazed about all the controversy.

“All of these folks, I understand, they’re looking to dance on my grave. I take enough shots at them all the time, so it’s fair. But let’s get real here, guys” he said. “Let my haters know it’s not going to stop us from doing what we’ve done for 45 years — although on this one — my mistake. The rhetoric I used, I should not have used in that moment.”

Luis Peroza, 40, eventually pleaded guilty in the attack on Ray Alvarez, now 91, outside Alvarez’s shop on Avenue A. Peroza also admitted to two more attacks on the same day, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

“Luis Peroza has been held accountable for viciously assaulting three individuals in just one day,” Bragg said in a statement. “I hope that this sentencing can bring a sense of justice and relief for each of the victims.”

Alvarez has been serving egg creams, fried Oreos and other treats to hungry customers at all hours since 1974 at Ray’s Candy Store. Around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 31, 2023, Peroza and another man approached the store and offered him seltzers for purchase.

When Alvarez turned them down, the men became violent. Peroza grabbed a belt with a rock attached and began beating Alvarez, according to police.

“One of them hit [my employee] in the chest and the other guy said, ‘Hold this, I want to kill this bastard,'” Alvarez told the Daily News last year. “He took something that looked like a belt with a stone on it and he swung and hit me in the head. I fell down on the floor outside — I was bleeding and bleeding.”

About 30 minutes after the assault on Alvarez, Peroza attacked a man on Avenue C with the same hard object, investigators said. Several hours after that, he assaulted another man on Avenue B.

A few days later, cops arrested Peroza and his accomplice, Gerald Barth. In June 2023, Barth was found unfit to stand trial in the case. Six months later, Peroza pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree assault.

Alvarez meanwhile was back at work hours after he was beaten and “despite the attack, has shown great courage and resilience by returning to work and continuing to spread joy – as he has for decades,” Bragg said Wednesday.

That accounted contradicted statements from the Guardian Angels’ controversial leader Curtis Sliwa, who initially said the man was a “migrant” and a “shoplifter.”

In fact, the man — not a migrant — who was roughed up “may have been a little bit drunk, but he was just trying to make his way down Seventh Ave. when Sliwa’s goons stopped him,” the source said, citing surveillance and body-worn camera footage.

“He tried to push past them and they strong-arm him to the ground,” the source said.

The incident unfolded during a live Fox News interview focusing on the city’s migrant crisis that Sean Hannity conducted with Sliwa on Tuesday night.

During the segment, Sliwa had the camera pan to the dustup between several Angels and the man, later identified by cops as a 22-year-old Bronxite.

Sliwa didn’t know what was happening but quickly made up the migrant angle, the police source said Thursday.

“Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner — 42nd [St.] and Seventh [Ave.],” Sliwa said during the Tuesday broadcast, calling the man a shoplifter.

“Let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance,” continued Sliwa, the 2021 GOP mayoral candidate. “His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He’s sucking concrete.”

The 22-year-old eventually received a summons for disorderly conduct.

“He was observed by police to be acting in a loud, threatening manner causing public alarm,” a police spokesperson said Wednesday. “As a result, he was issued a summons.”

Sliwa changed his tune, but only slightly, when contacted by the Daily News on Thursday.

“My language could have been much milder and calmer, no doubt about it, but I was in the eye of the storm at that point. It turned out it was wrong about the person that we had taken down and held and gave to the police,” he said.

That man appeared to be irate at the scene but calmed down when he got to a precinct stationhouse, where he put on a pair of glasses and began explaining that he had done nothing wrong, the police source said. He had no criminal record and has had a valid New York driver’s license since 2019, the source added.

When interviewed by police, the Angels — one of them Sliwa’s bodyguard — said they’d thought the man was “coming at” their boss, sources said.

In an interview with the AP on Wednesday, Sliwa admitted he’d believed the man was a migrant because he was “speaking Spanish” and because other Angels had encountered him with other Spanish speakers on previous patrols.

But when he spoke to The News, Sliwa claimed the man was with two others when he punched a woman Guardian Angel in the breast on Thursday.

“They’re rumbling and they’re pushing their way toward where we are and the next thing I know, they clocked a female Guardian Angel — this one guy who wound up getting arrested,” said Sliwa, who described the man as “belligerent.”

Witnesses called the man a migrant and he had a bag of baby clothes that may have been stolen, Sliwa claimed.

“This is third-hand information and I’m processing this — I personally should not have taken third-hand information. That was my mistake,” Sliwa told The News. “Obviously, that’s a big mistake.”

Arnaldo Salinas, Sliwa’s second-in-command with the angels, backed up his boss’ claims.

Salinas said he was in the middle of the melee and that the altercation started when the three men started hassling a retired cop providing security for the Fox TV crew.

“I walked over to de-escalate — and the gentleman simply was not de-escalating,” Salinas said. “He was ultra-aggressive, saying he was going to shoot us.”

According to Salinas, the man then used two open hands to shove a female Angel. Salinas said a tussle ensued and that a brown paper bag the man was holding broke open, spilling clothes with anti-theft tags to the ground.

City progressives have called for the tables to be turned on the Angels, with some saying they committed a hate crime.

Sliwa rejected the suggestion.

“It turns out he’s not a Venezuelan. I should not have implicated him as being that. (But) the Venezuelan immigrants — they’ve been on a crime spree,” he said.

“My anger boiled up. Clearly I haven’t indicted Venezuelan people,” he admitted. “The Guardian Angels are mostly minority. I, like a lot of New Yorkers, are really angry now at what the governor and the mayor and the president have done by bringing these people, many of whom have criminal records because they were never checked, here.”

During a Thursday interview on CNN, Gov. Hochul was asked to look at the Sliwa clip.

“You can not take the law into your own hands,” she said of the violence. “This is not the Wild West. This is New York State.”

Sliwa, a conservative talk radio staple, has courted controversy throughout his time in the limelight.

In 1992, he admitted to having faked several crimes years earlier, including his own kidnapping, to gain publicity and spotlight dangers in the subway system.

This week’s incident added fuel to already high tensions in New York City as officials struggle to handle an ongoing rise in migrant arrivals for more than a year.

A group of migrants attacked two NYPD officers outside a shelter in Times Square on Jan. 27, sparking outrage.

There’s also been heated debate over the city’s shelter and benefits policies for the new arrivals. A growing number of progressives have voiced concern over the prospect of anti-migrant bigotry sweeping the city.

The Guardian Angels, which Sliwa launched in the 1970s to fight rampant subway crime, have long had a tense relationship with police.

“He’s out of his f—ing mind,” the police source said of Sliwa. “He doesn’t know what was going on and he begins babbling about him being a migrant.”