A man who was detained in Times Square by Curtis Sliwa’s vigilante group the Guardian Angels Tuesday night live on Fox News was not a “migrant,” as Sliwa claimed, but a Bronx resident, according to the Associated Press.
Tuesday’s broadcast of Hannity took an odd turn when members of his group were shown physically engaging with an unidentified individual and detaining them on the ground. Sliwa declared that “our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner of 42nd and 7th.” He later asserted that the person “had been shoplifting.”
But a New York Police Department spokesperson told the Associated Press Wednesday that the man was actually a New Yorker, with the outlet noting that the department “provided no evidence” to confirm whether he was charged with the crime of shoplifting. However, the man was given a summons for disorderly conduct, the NYPD said.
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“Upon arrival of police after the initial incident, he was observed by officers to be acting in a loud, disorderly threatening manner on a crowded sidewalk causing public alarm,” the department told Fox News.
The Daily Beast has contacted the NYPD for comment.
For his part, Sliwa told the Associated Press what led him to assume the man was a migrant: he was “speaking Spanish,” and that his members had had prior contact with him and other Spanish speakers.
“He was put down so he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else,” Sliwa said.
