NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper honored on Tuesday two heroic migrants who saved a woman in Queens last month from a dangerous criminal who attacked her with a knife.
Alexander Oswaldo Robles Lino and Josnan Alberto Palacios of Venezuela arrived at One Police Plaza on Aug. 20 alongside their families, tears welling in their eyes. Both men are still new to the United States, having come here to carve out a better life for their families.
It didn’t take very long, police said, for the two men to prove that they made America better for being here.
On July 28, police reported, a 23-year-old woman was allegedly confronted by 24-year-old Contreras Randol, who at knifepoint allegedly demanded money inside of the Jamaica-Van Wyck station in Richmond Hill. When the victim told him she did not have any cash, cops said, he then stabbed her multiple times.
Robles Lino and Palacios, who witnessed the attack, gave chase as Randol allegedly tried to flee — tackling him to the ground on the street and held him down until police arrived.
“I saw the body cam footage from the first officer on scene, I watched as a sergeant ran towards the commotion, and the sight that he saw was the bad guy on the ground, and Jocelyn and Alexander standing guard over him,” Chief Kemper said. “Even with the initial language barrier between these men and the officers, I can assure you that goodness and decency require no translation.”
While the victim recovered in hospital, Randol was hit with a slew of charges including attempted murder, robbery, assault, and menacing.
Meanwhile, Robles Lino and Palacios have been hailed as heroes. To thank the two men for their efforts, the NYPD presented the pair on Aug. 20 with citations.
Chief Kemper also went as far as to address the negative press some Venezuelan asylum seekers have received over the last several years due to gang crime.
“Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of people, you’re going to have some people, a small percentage, in that group that are not here for the right reasons,” Chief Kemper said. “That is not the norm, this is the norm, and this is why we’re excited to recognize what they did, and their actions.”
After receiving his award, Palacios told amNewYork Metro, with the help of a translator, that he hopes his actions will help change the mindset surrounding migrants, especially those hailing from Venezuela.
“It’s now being shown that there are people with good intentions and a good heart,” Palacios explained. “At the end of the day, this is something that has to come to light so everyone can see that everybody’s the same.”
Robles Lino also weighed in on the noble save. When asked why he chose to leave his children with a friend and chase down a knife-wielding assailant who could have caused him deadly harm, the answer was a simple one: to save a life.
“At that moment, you don’t think about acting, you just do it,” Robles Lino said. “Thank God at that moment we did act so we could prevent the girl from dying.”
Assistant Commissioner Carlos Nieves also pointed out the impact the two men have not only had by saving a life but also on proving to the country that good people are emigrating to the Big Apple.
“Not everybody comes to the United States with intentions to commit crimes. We have hard-working, decent people like these men and their families. And they got involved in something that didn’t have to,” Nieves said.
