{"id":301071,"date":"2026-07-20T20:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301071\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:49:13","slug":"army-veteran-accused-of-starting-fire-outside-nyc-federal-building-fbi-says-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/301071\/","title":{"rendered":"Army veteran, accused of starting fire outside NYC federal building, FBI says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe man accused of setting off fireworks and lighting a fire Monday morning in front of a New York building housing an immigration court and other government offices is a former U.S. Army soldier, an FBI official said.Andrew Arrabaca, who was a mechanic on Patriot missile systems, is in custody and has been interviewed, said James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI\u2019s New York Field Office.Barnacle said at a news conference that the 43-year-old Arrabaca \u201ccame armed with bad intentions\u201d and had various weapons, including a pellet gun, knives, a hammer and a machete. Arrabaca fired five to seven pellets from an airsoft rifle toward the building, he said.\u201cHe is an anti-American, anti-government extremist,\u201d Barnacle said.No charges have been announced yet against Arrabaca, and it was not immediately clear if he has a lawyer.As the flames erupted outside an entrance to the building at 26 Federal Plaza, the person was tackled by a security officer and taken into custody, video shows.The lower Manhattan building, 26 Federal Plaza, has become a focal point for demonstrations against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.Video below: NYC officials give update on explosive attack on federal buildingThe individual in custody was carrying anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement material, according to law enforcement.The Department of Homeland Security accused the person of being an \u201canti-ICE rioter\u201d and said the incident took place around 8:20 a.m., when the person allegedly launched fireworks outside the building and then poured what\u2019s believed to be gasoline on the stairs to an entrance and set it on fire.DHS said the person had what appeared to be two pellet guns in their bag.A bystander was grazed by the fireworks, and the security officer who tackled the person sustained minor injuries, the agency said. The New York Fire Department said one person was transported to the hospital, but their injuries weren\u2019t life-threatening.\u201cWhat occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing,\u201d New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media. \u201cI\u2019m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody.\u201dMamdani said his team was in touch with police and will support the federal investigation. The FBI said its New York Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating.The building houses several government offices \u2014 including the New York office of the FBI \u2014 and the immigration court where agents have carried out chaotic and sometimes violent arrests in the hallway as migrants leave hearings.Videos and photos from the scene showed a fire with a plume of smoke on the sidewalk outside the building, as well as officers restraining a person and taking them away.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tNEW YORK \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The man accused of setting off fireworks and lighting a fire Monday morning in front of a New York building housing an immigration court and other government offices is a former U.S. Army soldier, an FBI official said.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Arrabaca, who was a mechanic on Patriot missile systems, is in custody and has been interviewed, said James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI\u2019s New York Field Office.<\/p>\n<p>Barnacle said at a news conference that the 43-year-old Arrabaca \u201ccame armed with bad intentions\u201d and had various weapons, including a pellet gun, knives, a hammer and a machete. Arrabaca fired five to seven pellets from an airsoft rifle toward the building, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is an anti-American, anti-government extremist,\u201d Barnacle said.<\/p>\n<p>No charges have been announced yet against Arrabaca, and it was not immediately clear if he has a lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>As the flames erupted outside an entrance to the building at 26 Federal Plaza, the person was tackled by a security officer and taken into custody, video shows.<\/p>\n<p>The lower Manhattan building, 26 Federal Plaza, has become a focal point for demonstrations against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>Video below: NYC officials give update on explosive attack on federal building<\/p>\n<p>The individual in custody was carrying anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement material, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security accused the person of being an \u201canti-ICE rioter\u201d and said the incident took place around 8:20 a.m., when the person allegedly launched fireworks outside the building and then poured what\u2019s believed to be gasoline on the stairs to an entrance and set it on fire.<\/p>\n<p>DHS said the person had what appeared to be two pellet guns in their bag.<\/p>\n<p>A bystander was grazed by the fireworks, and the security officer who tackled the person sustained minor injuries, the agency said. The New York Fire Department said one person was transported to the hospital, but their injuries weren\u2019t life-threatening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing,\u201d New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media. \u201cI\u2019m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani said his team was in touch with police and will support the federal investigation. The FBI said its New York Joint Terrorism Task Force was investigating.<\/p>\n<p>The building houses several government offices \u2014 including the New York office of the FBI \u2014 and the immigration court where agents have carried out chaotic and sometimes violent arrests in the hallway as migrants leave hearings.<\/p>\n<p>Videos and photos from the scene showed a fire with a plume of smoke on the sidewalk outside the building, as well as officers restraining a person and taking them away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man accused of setting off fireworks and lighting a fire Monday morning in front of a New&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8068,1289,2803,61420,98937,26901,98127,18624,65020,5970,114086,32015,12242,745,1638,9,24,55,54,114112,56,96563,114113,96558,17102,8818,3694,30868,96561,1115,96557],"class_list":["post-301071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-26-federal-plaza","tag-building","tag-court","tag-custody","tag-demand-menu-subscribe","tag-device","tag-email-weather-search","tag-explosion","tag-explosive-device","tag-fbi","tag-federal-building","tag-federal-plaza","tag-immigration-court","tag-investigation","tag-monday","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-joint-terrorism-task-force","tag-ny","tag-page","tag-plume-of-smoke","tag-privacy-notice-term","tag-shnd","tag-suspect","tag-terrorism","tag-unidentified-suspect","tag-use-nextfre","tag-video","tag-wjcl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301071","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=301071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}