NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — A man charged and released for his alleged role in a snowball fight that injured two NYPD officers in Washington Square Park earlier this week, was previously arrested for harassing people in a subway station.
The 27-year-old, Gusmane Coulibaly, was arrested earlier this month for harassing people in a Bronx subway station for money they purportedly owed him as part of an ongoing stunt for his YouTube channel.
Coulibaly’s prior arrest in the Bronx was the result of pranks he was filming in the subway.
In a YouTube video, posted under the name “Diaperman,” Coulibaly pretended that strangers owed him money, and set out on a five-borough tour to “see which borough has the most crash outs.”
His efforts resulted in his arrest in the Bronx, where he was placed in handcuffs after harassing one person in the subway station mezzanine.
In a video, Coulibaly is seen asking a victim, “When you gonna pay up the money?” To which the victim insisted it was a case of mistake identity.
“What do you mean you don’t know me? What’s funny?” he continued in the video.
When he allegedly threatened the man, saying “If I get mad I’m going to have to run your pockets,” two plainclothes police officers moved in and took him into custody.
As for Coulibaly’s most recent arrest, he was arraigned in night court on Thursday on obstructing governmental administration and harassment charges, prosecutors said.
During the arraignment, prosecutors said they can’t yet prove he caused the officer’s injuries, and he was not charged with assaulting a police officer, but the investigation continues. Coulibaly pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor harassment and obstruction charges.
The judge released the 27-year-old on supervised release following the brief arraignment.
The PBA is outraged over the decision for supervised release.
“Why do they feel that that didn’t cause injury to our police officer, which he clearly has an injury below his eye, the same eye that they talked about,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said.
“It didn’t look like an attack to me. What I saw in the video, it didn’t look like an attack. Did it go past jokes and fun? Was it possibly a little disrespectful to the police? Yes,” defense attorney George Vomvolakis said.
Coulibalyhid his face from photographers as he left the 6th Precinct.
He’s the first of at least four people identified from cellphone video to face charges after Monday’s melee in Washington Square Park, where two NYPD officers were injured, and several others were covered in snow and ice.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has insisted he saw no evidence of a crime and that no one should face charges.
“I can just tell you from the video I saw, it looked like kids at a snowball fight,” Mamdani said.
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