Off-duty NYPD Detective Jose Mercedes stabbed 10 times in Oct. 2 mugging; suspects later caught in Massachusetts

Two men were arrested and charged after prosecutors say off-duty NYPD Detective Jose Mercedes was stabbed during a Bronx mugging. According to local prosecutors and law-enforcement accounts, Mercedes was assaulted while at his parked car on E. 208th Street near Steuben Avenue on Oct. 2; prosecutors say he sustained 10 stab wounds.

Sources report Mercedes identified himself as a police officer repeatedly during the attack, but the suspects continued the assault. The detective pursued the attackers for several blocks while bleeding, then collapsed; he later appeared at a press event with visible stitches and a cast as he recovers.

Prosecutors and police identified the suspects as 24-year-old Sneider Mejia and 25-year-old D’Angelo Carabello. Authorities say the two were riding a scooter when they encountered Mercedes and ambushed him. Officials describe efforts by the suspects to change their appearance — cutting their hair and discarding cellphones — as they fled New York for Massachusetts.

NYPD detectives working with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force and Boston authorities located the two men hiding in Massachusetts on Oct. 6; they were returned to New York, arraigned on attempted murder charges and ordered held without bail.

As they were led out of the 52nd Precinct stationhouse, one defendant, Carabello, acknowledged involvement to reporters, according to an outlet that covered the arraignment.

Prosecutors have emphasised the violent nature of the assault and the defendants’ alleged flight from the scene; the police union and Mercedes have publicly recounted his account of the attack, including that he kept telling the attackers he was a cop.

Coverage differs in emphasis across outlets: some accounts highlight Mercedes’s pursuit of the suspects and personal loss of a gold chain his mother had given him, while others centre on the investigative steps that led to the Massachusetts arrest. The men face attempted murder charges in the Bronx; court proceedings and the extradition were described in arraignment reporting.

The charges and the defendants’ statements at arraignment are part of the public record in New York criminal proceedings, and the legal process will determine guilt or innocence. No source in this set provides a court verdict or a final judicial determination.

Reporting identifies Mercedes as a 10-year NYPD detective and quotes him and union representatives at a Manhattan press event; prosecutors such as Bronx Assistant District Attorney Paul Irace are named in court statements detailing the investigation. The sequence established in the reporting is: Mercedes was stabbed on Oct.

2 → the suspects fled to Massachusetts and reportedly altered their appearances → law enforcement found them in Massachusetts on Oct. 6 → they were extradited and arraigned on attempted murder charges in New York.