Nassau County updates public on first mask law arrest

Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, along with County Executive Bruce Blakeman, provided an update on the first arrest related to the new mask law, at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive & Legislative Building in Mineola on Aug. 28.

Deputy County Executive for Public Safety Tatum Fox, Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, State Sen. Jack Martins and Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz were also there.

According to Ryder, Wesslin Omar Ramirez Castillo, 18, of Hicksville, was taken into custody on Aug. 25, after Nassau County police officers responded to reports of a suspicious individual walking east on Spindle Road in Levittown.

Castillo, Ryder said, was dressed in black and wearing a mask, which drew attention under the newly enacted Nassau County Mask Transparency Act, which prohibits the concealment of identity in public spaces.

“This individual himself was not suspicious,” Ryder said. “The fact that he was wearing the mask is why the call came in.”

Officers saw Castillo allegedly displaying what officials said was suspicious behavior and attempting to hide a large bulge in his waistband.

After further investigation, the officers discovered that the bulge was a 14-inch knife. Police say Castillo allegedly resisted complying with the officers' commands but was eventually arrested without further incident.

Castillo lives about a mile away from where he was arrested, Ryder said. He was born in Guatemala and allegedly entered the country illegally in 2019. According to Ryder, Castillo was suspected to have loose ties to gang affiliations.

Ryder added that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were notified about Castillo.

He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, obstructing governmental administration, and violating the Nassau County Mask Transparency Act, which went into effect on Aug. 21, and was arraigned on Aug. 26, at Family Court in Westbury.

Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick said that due to New York’s bail reform laws, which ended the use of money bail and jail for most cases involving misdemeanors and lower-level felonies, judges were prohibited from considering the alleged dangerousness of Castillo, and, therefore, has been released.

“Our cashless bail does not allow our judges to hold an individual, such as this, because the charges were misdemeanors,” Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick said.

She called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to introduce legislation similar to the county’s mask law, to prevent people committing crimes to hide their identity.

Blakeman noted that the county was recently named by U.S. News & World Report as, “The safest county in America,” which Blakeman he to the county’s commitment to law enforcement, but noted that Nassau has to “fight against laws that give criminals more rights than victims, such as cashless bail and the open border policy.”

“If we don’t give our police officers the tools necessary to combat crime, someone with a knife like this could potentially kill somebody,” he said.