
At 11:50 p.m. on July 19, 2025, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant named Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez walked up to an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in Fort Washington Park, Manhattan, and shot him in the face and right arm during a robbery. His accomplice, 23-year-old Christhian Aybar-Berroa, drove the getaway car.
The federal charge? Possession of ammunition by a person illegally in the country.
Not attempted murder of a federal law enforcement officer. Not assault with a deadly weapon. Not armed robbery. The United States federal government looked at a man who put a bullet through a cop's face and decided the real crime was that he had the ammo in the first place.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska sentenced Mora Nunez on Monday to 15 years — 180 months — which was the maximum allowed under that charge. Aybar-Berroa got 12 and a half years, 151 months, also the max. Both received three years of supervised release. The U.S. Attorney's office said their actions "shocked our city" and caused "lasting harm," according to United Voice.
Judge Preska threw the book at them. The problem is the book was too small.
Now, state prosecutors in New York did file heavier charges against Mora Nunez — attempted murder, assault, robbery, and weapons possession. So somewhere in the system, someone looked at the facts and charged them correctly. But at the federal level, the charge that stuck was a paperwork violation with a gun modifier. That's what a bullet to a cop's face is worth in the federal system when the shooter is an illegal alien.
Aybar-Berroa entered the country illegally through Texas in 2022. He shouldn't have been in Fort Washington Park. He shouldn't have been in Manhattan. He shouldn't have been in the country. He was here anyway, behind the wheel of a getaway car, while his partner shot a federal officer in the face.
Mora Nunez pleaded guilty on May 4, 2026 — nearly a year after the shooting. The plea deal itself tells you something. When a man fires a weapon into a law enforcement officer's face during a robbery, and the negotiated outcome is an ammunition possession charge, the system has made a choice about whose safety matters.
The CBP officer survived. He took a bullet to the face while off duty in a public park in one of the most heavily policed cities on earth, fired by a man who crossed the border illegally and never should have been within a thousand miles of that park.
Fifteen years sounds like a long time until you remember what he did to earn it. Mora Nunez will be 37 when he's eligible for release. The officer will still have the scars.


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