Illegal alien wanted by ICE identified as suspect in off-duty NYPD cop slashing attack

One of the thugs accused in the cowardly slashing of an off-duty NYPD detective has been illegally living in the US — and is being hunted by both ICE and cops, who are also searching for his accomplice.

Police Detective Jose Mercedes was grabbing items out of the trunk of his car at Rochambeau Avenue and East 208th Street in Norwood in The Bronx around 1:45 p.m. Friday when the brazen pair pulled up on an e-bike.

The criminals tried to snatch the cop’s gold chain, but Mercedes tried to fight back and was slashed seven times by the violent muggers, who sped off and left the detective bleeding on the sidewalk, police said.

Mercedes, who is assigned to the 44th Precinct in The Bronx, was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center and was listed in stable condition after the broad-daylight attack, the department said.

Police identified the suspects Tuesday in the midst of a massive manhunt for them.

The suspects were caught on surveillance video near the scene of the crime, with the driver speeding down the sidewalk and his passenger and suspected stabber sitting shirtless behind him.

The accused slasher was identified as 25-year-old D’Angelo Caraballo, while the suspect behind the wheel of the bike was ID’d as Sneider Mejia, 24, who has been living in the country illegally and already had detainer issued for him by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Mejia has one arrest on his rap sheet from last year, but the case has since been sealed, sources said.

Caraballo has two prior arrests — a menacing rap for allegedly threatening to stab a person who rented him a room in the Bronx in July and a 2025 gun possession charge for allegedly lugging a loaded .380 Taurus gun in his car, the sources said.

Mercedes’ uncle, aunt and nephew were at his hospital bedside Saturday.

“We want the justice system to ensure the police do their job effectively, but the courts go too easy on them, sending criminals right back out on the street,” Ricardo Mercedes, the cop’s frustrated uncle, told The Post. “We want a tough stance from the justice system.

“The police catch them, but then they’re let go — right back out on the street,” he added. “That is what we want to change.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch also visited the cop at the hospital.

Mercedes was released from the hospital Monday, giving a thumb’s up to the crowd of cops gathered to see him leave.

The officer, who joined the force in July 2016, was the first police officer in his family, and has inspired other kin to follow suit, his uncle said.

The attack on the cop comes just weeks after a maniac chucked a glass bottle at an NYPD cop’s head at a Queens public housing complex — with the suspect locked up last month.

In May, an FDNY firefighter allegedly punched an on-duty NYPD police officer in the face while suffering a mental health crisis inside a Queens hospital this week, prosecutors and sources said.

Earlier in the year, an unruly mob of rowdy winter warriors pummeled New York’s Finest at Washington Square Park, throwing snowballs in a chaotic scene caught on video.