Disturbing video shows group of Venezuelan migrants beat Chicago straphanger
A disturbing new video shows the moment a group of migrant men from Venezuela attacked and robbed a Chicago straphanger in February — with one of the men choking the victim unconscious as the rest rifled through his pockets.
The four suspects — Fernando Loyo-Rodriguez, Wilker Gutierrez Sierra, Carlos Carreno-Carreno and Yonnier Guasamucare Garcia — approached their 49-year-old target on a Windy City commuter train on Feb. 17 and started chatting him up, according to surveillance video obtained by Fox News.
But the affable facade — which included passing around a cigarette or a joint inside the car — concealed their true motive.
Suddenly, one of the migrants lunged for the unidentified victim, seized him around the neck and sunk a chokehold that eventually knocked him out, the video showed.
Police said one of the suspects pulled a knife and held it to the victim’s throat — as his criminal colleagues rifled through the man’s pockets, the video showed.
The group, all of whom ranged in age from 18 to 22, grabbed $400 and a cellphone from the man before taking off, Fox said.
The migrants — who had only been in the country for a few months at most before the attack — were arrested about 45 minutes later.
Each man gave a state-funded migrant shelter as his address.
Authorities charged each with robbery, aggravated battery/strangulation and attempted murder.
At a Tuesday court appearance in Cook County, a judge remanded Carreno-Carreno, Loyo-Rodriguez and Guasamucare Garcia and cut loose Gutierrez Sierra with electronic monitoring.
Their next hearing is Aug. 28.
Immigration experts have said that three of the four defendants could be deported if they’re convicted of a felony.
Over the last two years, Chicago has seen about 35,000 migrants get sent to the city by bus or plane.
The city is hosting about 13,000 of those in shelters.
The attack mirrors similar incidents in New York, which has seen its share of migrant crime over the past few years.
That includes a savage assault by a crew of Venezuelan migrants with rap sheets who allegedly pounced on New York’s Finest in April after getting caught stealing from an Upper East Side Target.
And in early June, suspected predator Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in Kissena Park in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
The Ecuadorian man had been ordered to leave the country more than two years ago — but likely applied for some kind of relief that allowed him to stay in the country.
Since the start of the migrant crisis more than two years ago, about 170,000 migrants have come through the Big Apple.
Of those, nearly 70,000 remain in the city’s care — and that’s expected to cost New York about $10 billion through June 2025.
