Two migrants were arrested for a knifepoint rape in Coney Island – one of them had already been charged with a previous sexual assault case just four months after entering the United States illegally, law enforcement sources said Monday.
Daniel Davon-Bonilla, 24, a migrant from Nicaragua, allegedly grabbed the 46-year-old woman and threw her to the ground, then raped her while holding a knife to her throat at around 9 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Surf Avenue and 16th Street, police and sources said.
His alleged accomplice, identified as 37-year-old Mexican migrant Leovando Moreno, is accused of hitting the woman’s 34-year-old boyfriend with a pipe as he tried to stop the brutal attack, the sources said.
The gruesome attack took place outside a hotel housing asylum seekers – and on a poorly lit walkway between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, which leads to an area littered with drug paraphernalia and cans of White Claw under the boardwalk where migrants and homeless people camp.
Davon-Bonilla, who previously lived in a La Quinta hotel on Third Avenue that was converted into a migrant shelter, was charged with first-degree rape, second-degree assault, first-degree sexual abuse, menacing and illegal possession of a weapon, the sources said. He was scheduled to be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Monday.
Sources at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Davon-Bonilla entered the U.S. illegally through Eagle Pass in Texas on December 7, 2022, and was discovered by border officials while sneaking through the dense undergrowth.
He was taken into Border Patrol custody and told officers at the time that he lived in Miami and gave them the address of a homeless shelter.
About four months later, he was accused of raping a 34-year-old woman at La Quinta.
This victim was raped and anally assaulted at the hotel on April 23, 2023. Bonilla was accused of pulling the woman’s hair and restraining her during the attack. He was charged with sexual conduct, false imprisonment as a hate crime, sexual misconduct and sexual abuse, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Law enforcement sources said he spent several months in prison before taking a plea deal in that case that allowed him to get back on the streets. It’s not clear why Bonilla was allowed to stay in the U.S. after he was released from prison in that case.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sources blamed New York’s sanctuary policy, saying it prevents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting dangerous criminals.
Sanctuary cities and states typically refuse to detain illegal immigrants accused of crimes so that federal immigration authorities can take them into custody and begin deportation proceedings.
“If sanctuary cities and states do not share immigration information or do not work well with ICE, immigration authorities will never get a chance to do their job and deport people with criminal histories and illegal residency,” a DHS source said.
Another DHS source cited the Biden administration’s limited “priorities” in enforcing immigration laws and “sanctuary cities not cooperating with ICE” as the reason for this latest crime.
“There are child molesters I cannot arrest because they are not a priority,” the source said.
The victim of Sunday night’s attack is from out of state and appears to be homeless, living in an encampment under the boardwalk near where she was raped, according to law enforcement sources.
According to sources, Bonilla confronted her before the attack and demanded sex.
Moreno was charged with second-degree assault and illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the attack Sunday evening.
It is not immediately clear when Moreno entered the country.
According to sources, the victim was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where her condition was listed as stable.
Her boyfriend refused medical help on site, it was said.
“It’s really suspicious,” a parks official said Monday of this section of the Coney Island boardwalk. “You don’t want to walk down that alley at night. Absolutely not.”
The area is popular with vagrants because there are two public toilets nearby, the employee said.
“There aren’t many places you can get under the boardwalk, but they’ll get into any space that becomes available,” he said. “If they can get under there, they’ll live under there.”
The Coney Island boardwalk is one of several places in the Big Apple that have been home to migrants who have flocked to the city’s five boroughs in recent years.
Many of them, including those kicked out of city-funded shelters, have joined the ranks of Gotham’s homeless.
“It stinks of urine and there are homeless people smoking drugs,” said mother Nicole Sideova, who was pushing her 11-month-old daughter in a stroller along the promenade on Monday afternoon.
“Dangerous people,” said Sideova. “It’s like a trap. Once you go down there, there’s no escape.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan, Amanda Woods and Desheania Andrews
