Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that the last of the six defendants who attacked police in the early hours of June 17, 2024, outside a hotel on 12^th Street in Long Island City has been sentenced. All six defendants pleaded guilty. NYPD officers on patrol spotted young children riding bikes at 4:20 a.m. and when they approached nearby adults they were surrounded and assaulted.

District Attorney Katz said: “Two NYPD members, who observed young children playing outside after 4 a.m., attempted to do a welfare check outside a hotel in Long Island City. When the officers asked a group of nearby adults about the three children, they were mercilessly set upon and assaulted. This case sends a strong message that anyone who assaults members of our uniformed services will face serious consequences.”

Miguel Chiluisa, 24, of Roosevelt Avenue in Corona and Natali Iza, 28, address unknown, pleaded guilty on May 27 to two counts of attempted assault in the second degree. Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng sentenced Chiluisa today to one to three years in prison. Iza was sentenced to one to three years in prison on June 17. Christian Taipe, 31, of 36^th Avenue in Astoria, also pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted assault in the second degree on May 12 and was sentenced to one to three years in prison on June 9.

Defendants Alejandro Munoz, 43, Juan Munoz, 26, and Karina Navarro-Chavez, 43, all of 10^th Street in Long Island City, were sentenced to 364 days in jail. All three pleaded guilty to riot in the second degree.

According to the charges, in the early morning hours of June 17, 2024, two police officers spotted three children alone and riding bicycles on the sidewalk near a hotel at 38-70 12^th Street. The children rode their bikes toward a group of adults in the vicinity of the hotel. The officers approached the adults to speak to them when Iza began to yell at the officers and pushed one of them.

The six defendants then surrounded the two officers. Chiluisa picked up one of the children’s bikes and threw it at the police, striking one of the officers. Navarro-Chavez struck an officer on the back of the head with an unknown object and Iza grabbed another bike and struck one of the cops.

The group of six then began to punch, shove and kick the two officers.

One of the officers was able to handcuff Chiluisa but he slipped away and fled the scene. He was apprehended approximately an hour later at a nearby subway station. The defendant’s handcuffs were broken and dangling from one wrist.

Defendants Iza and Taipe surrendered to the 114^th precinct on June 18 and all others were arrested at the scene. The officers were taken to an area hospital and treated for injuries, including shoulder pain and abrasions.

Assistant District Attorney Dina Hodges, of the District Attorney’s Felony Trial Bureau IV, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Karen Rankin, Bureau Chief, Robert Ferino and Tara DiGregorio, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of the Supreme Court Trial Division Pishoy B. Yacoub.