{"id":146267,"date":"2026-02-26T16:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146267\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T16:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T16:50:33","slug":"police-arrest-suspect-in-nypd-snowball-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146267\/","title":{"rendered":"Police arrest suspect in NYPD snowball incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the suspects accused of throwing snowballs at police officers during a snowball fight in Washington Square Park is now in custody, the NYPD said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was arrested for allegedly assaulting officers during Monday\u2019s incident, the department said in a post on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was arrested Thursday for allegedly assaulting officers during a Washington Square Park snowball fight
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Two officers were injured, suffering facial lacerations, and the NYPD describes the case as an assault
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said the incident \u201cgot out of hand\u201d but does not believe charges are warranted<\/p>\n

The NYPD said it was not Coulibaly\u2019s first arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Coulibaly was previously arrested less than three weeks ago for an attempted robbery in the transit system,\u201d the agency wrote, without providing additional details.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear yet what specific charges Coulibaly will face. His attorney information wasn\u2019t immediately available Thursday.<\/p>\n

The NYPD is still seeking three other suspects in connection with the case, which has escalated into a citywide dispute<\/a> over whether what unfolded was harmless chaos or criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

Police said the incident in Washington Square Park left two officers with facial lacerations<\/a>. Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Hendry \u2014 whose union represents thousands of NYPD officers \u2014 swiftly condemned it as an \u201cattack,\u201d while Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called it \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201ccriminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[The officers] were surrounded by a group which they described as mainly adults, who were blocking both entrances of the park,\u201d Hendry said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a snowball fight, no. This was ice chunks that were smashed on a police officer\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for his part, has said he does not believe criminal charges are warranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it was a snowball fight that got out of hand, and it should be treated accordingly,\u201d he said at a news conference Wednesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the arrest Thursday, Hendry doubled down on his previous remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 27-year-old with a recent attempted robbery arrest is not a \u2018kid.\u2019 This arrest sends a clear message that assaults on police officers cannot and will not be minimized or tolerated,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWe thank all of the NYPD members who have worked so hard on this case, and all of the New Yorkers who have spoken up in support of our police officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more work to be done to hold accountable all who participated in this shameful attack,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the suspects accused of throwing snowballs at police officers during a snowball fight in Washington Square…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[109,387,25,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,87,308,380,27],"class_list":["post-146267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-public-safety","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}