A former US Army soldier has been arrested after igniting a fire in front of a federal building in New York City, says the FBI. <\/p>\n
Andrew Arrabaca, 43, allegedly shot a pellet gun and set off fireworks on Monday morning at 26 Federal Plaza, where the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and US Citizenship and Immigration Services have offices.<\/p>\n
Federal agents tackled the suspect, who they say was armed with a machete and other weapons.<\/p>\n
Three people sustained minor injuries in the incident, including an immigrant who was attending a status hearing, said the FBI. The lower Manhattan site has become a flashpoint for protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.<\/p>\n
The suspect, whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called an “anti-ICE rioter”, launched fireworks before pouring an accelerant on the stairs of an entrance to the building, causing a fire. The BBC has contacted DHS for comment.<\/p>\n
The fire department put out the blaze.<\/p>\n
Arrabaca “made several anti-government and anti-ICE statements during the incident”, the FBI said.<\/p>\n
FBI New York Assistant Director James Barnacle said during a news conference that Arrabaca was armed with two axes, a machete, three knives and fireworks.<\/p>\n
He fired about five to seven pellets from an airsoft gun in the direction of the building, Barnacle said.<\/p>\n
Of those injured, two were government employees, Barnacle said.<\/p>\n
DHS said a bystander was grazed, and a security officer who tackled and detained Arrabaca sustained minor injuries.<\/p>\n
“He is an anti-American, anti-government extremist,” Barnacle added.<\/p>\n
Arrabaca, of Poughkeepsie, New York state, served in the regular Army from 2001-04 and in the Army National Guard-New York from 2004-05, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS. <\/p>\n
He did not have any deployments and left the Army with the rank of specialist.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the incident “deeply disturbing” in a post on X.<\/p>\n
“Our administration will continue to ensure that every New Yorker is safe in their city – and hold accountable any who threaten that,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former US Army soldier has been arrested after igniting a fire in front of a federal building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-301516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301516","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=301516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}