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Off-Duty Customs Officer Shot in Robbery Attempt in Park, N.Y.P.D. Says

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The officer, 42, is expected to recover after being shot in the face and returning fire. There is no indication that he was targeted because of his job, police officials said.

A group of officers gather near yellow crime-scene tape in a park at night, with a small red lighthouse and the Hudson River behind them.

July 20, 2025, 6:24 p.m. ET

An off-duty customs officer was shot in the face and arm during a robbery attempt at a park in Manhattan late Saturday night, police officials said.

The officer, 42, was sitting with a friend on rocks at the water’s edge along the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan just before midnight when two men rode up on a scooter, Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon. When one of the men approached the officer and revealed a firearm, the officer realized he was being robbed and drew his service weapon, Commissioner Tisch said. The robber fired his weapon first, and the two men exchanged gunfire, she said.

The robber was also shot and limped back to the scooter, and he fled the scene with his companion, Commissioner Tisch said, adding that the attack was captured by security cameras.

The commissioner said there was no indication that the officer, whom the police have not named, had been targeted for his employment. He is expected to recover from his injuries.

The police have detained Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, as a person of interest in relation to the shooting, Commissioner Tisch said. Mr. Mora walked into a hospital in the Bronx shortly after the attempted robbery with gunshot wounds to the groin and the leg, she said, which were consistent with the injuries sustained by the man who shot the officer as captured on video. Mr. Mora underwent surgery and is in custody at Lincoln Hospital, and he is expected to be arrested on Sunday, Commissioner Tisch said. The police are looking for his accomplice in the shooting, who has not been identified.

Officials said that Mr. Mora entered the United States illegally in 2023 through Arizona. He was arrested twice previously on domestic violence charges in New York, and officials had issued an arrest warrant after he failed to show up to a court date in one of those cases, Commissioner Tisch said on Sunday. Mr. Mora is also wanted in connection with a robbery in December and a stabbing in January, both of which occurred in the Bronx, as well as a pawnshop robbery in Massachusetts in February in which guns were stolen, the commissioner said.