A few days after a violent confrontation in which the police struck and used a stun gun on a Venezuelan migrant at a city-run shelter in Queens, that man’s family and three other families staying at the shelter received unexpected news with little explanation: They had to move out.
Two of the families said in interviews that they were told to pack their belongings and were then placed in taxicabs and Ubers that dropped them off at other shelters. The abrupt relocations and lack of clarity — shelter staff told them only that they were being moved for “security reasons” — left the families scrambling for answers in their new environs.
“We weren’t even given a warning,” said Alexander Monsalve, 40, who was put into a car with his wife and two daughters around 9 p.m. on Tuesday that dropped them off about 30 miles away, at a hotel on Staten Island that had been turned into a migrant shelter. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
The relocation of the families appeared to be the latest fallout from the altercation last week at the Queens shelter, where police officers responding to calls about a dispute sought to restrain a migrant who was holding his 1-year-old son. Officers used a stun gun on the man, separated him from his child and punched him repeatedly while trying to subdue him.
City officials are investigating the matter. Mayor Eric Adams has stood by the officers’ conduct, saying the migrant, Yanny Cordero, was intoxicated and acting violently. Mr. Cordero, who was arrested and later released, has vehemently denied the accusations.
Most of the relocations came after The New York Times published a video of the police altercation. The families moved included Mr. Cordero’s and that of the man who recorded the video.
