{"id":147176,"date":"2026-02-27T10:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:16:09","slug":"manhattan-da-alvin-braggs-office-drops-assault-charge-against-influencer-accused-in-nypd-snowball-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147176\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg\u2019s office drops assault charge against influencer accused in NYPD snowball fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s <\/a>office has dropped assault charges against a New York City influencer who was accused of hurling snowballs at the NYPD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was arrested yesterday at his home in The Bronx in connection with the now-infamous snowball fight<\/a> that unfolded earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The fight took place in the city\u2019s Washington Square Park, with videos of the incident quickly spreading across social media. In the footage, New Yorkers can be seen pelting police officers with snowballs and larger chunks of snow<\/a> after officers were drafted in to control crowds.<\/p>\n

However, in court, prosecutors said that they were unable to prove that Coulibaly had caused an officer to sustain a physical injury, leading to the assault charge being dropped.<\/p>\n

\"Assault<\/p>\n

Assault charges against Gusmane Coulibaly have been dropped following a snowball fight, which unfolded in Washington Square Park (NYPD)<\/p>\n

Prosecutors did maintain, though, that Officer Nicholas Johnson had developed redness in his eye and pain in his head and neck from the snowball fight, according to The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, Coulibaly faces a misdemeanor charge of obstructing government administration, as well as a harassment violation. According to the NYPD<\/a>, he had already been arrested less than three weeks ago in connection with an unrelated \u201cattempted robbery in the transit system.\u201d<\/p>\n

The snowball fight in Greenwich Village has caused an early headache<\/a> for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration, though.<\/p>\n

Following Coulibaly\u2019s release, Mayor Mamdani\u2019s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, agreed that the influencer should not face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the mayor has said, police officers deserve to be treated with respect,\u201d Pekec told reporters at The New York Times<\/a>. \u201cThe videos he saw showed a snowball fight that got out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does not believe this situation rises to the level of criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the events at the snowball fight as \u201ccriminal\u201d and \u201cdisgraceful\u201d in a social media statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tisch has been supported by police unions, with several uniformed officers even sitting in on Coulibaly\u2019s arraignment last night, according to The Gothamist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a blatant attack on the uniform that they wear so proudly every day,\u201d Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry told reporters last night, referring to Coulibaly.<\/p>\n

\"Snowball<\/p>\n

Snowball fights took place across New York City on Monday, with the one in Washington Square Park allegedly being organized by influencers (Getty)<\/p>\n

Coulibaly\u2019s attorney, George Vomvolakis, rejected that characterization.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t look like an attack to me,\u201d he replied, according to The Gothamist.<\/p>\n

Mamdani<\/a> also downplayed the severity of the snowball fight, which had been organized by social media content creators.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the videos that I’ve seen, it looked like kids at a snowball fight,” he told reporters earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Police are still searching for three other people in connection with the incident.<\/p>\n

Coulibaly, an influencer who posts under the moniker Diaper Man, is currently on supervised release with his next court appearance set for April 9.<\/p>\n

His attorney, Vomvolakis, said that the content creator is known for making \u201celaborate videos.\u201d<\/p>\n

One such video showed him approaching a stranger on a Bronx<\/a> subway and asking for money, while acting as if they had met before.<\/p>\n

That was the incident that led to Coulibaly\u2019s previous arrest, which also landed him with a charge of attempted robbery. Vomvolakis told reporters, though, that he feels confident that this charge will be dismissed.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s office has dropped assault charges against a New York City influencer who was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[34446,61696,61695,31893,75,84,83,61697,9,24,63,103,50099,15081],"class_list":{"0":"post-147176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-assault-charges","9":"tag-coulibaly","10":"tag-gusmane-coulibaly","11":"tag-influencer","12":"tag-manhattan","13":"tag-manhattan-headlines","14":"tag-manhattan-news","15":"tag-misdemeanor-charge","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nypd","20":"tag-snowball-fight","21":"tag-washington-square-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147176","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=147176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}