{"id":302482,"date":"2026-07-22T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302482\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:58:09","slug":"former-soldier-charged-with-arson-in-manhattan-ice-facility-firebombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302482\/","title":{"rendered":"Former soldier charged with arson in Manhattan ICE facility firebombing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Arrabaca, a 43-year-old Army veteran, appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, where prosecutors alleged he had plotted the attack for months.<\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Fry said Arrabaca understood his actions could have harmed others and that he was willing to accept his own death in carrying out the attack.<\/p>\n

The FBI<\/a> said on Monday that Arrabaca was arrested after he dumped an unknown liquid on the ground and then lit fireworks on top of it, causing a small fire. After igniting the liquid, Arrabaca fired between five and seven rounds from a pellet gun. During the incident and his subsequent arrest, Arrabaca said he was an \u201canti-American, anti-government extremist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrabaca was charged with arson or explosion causing damage to U.S. government property, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison. He was not required to enter a plea during his court appearance.<\/p>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky rejected Arrabaca\u2019s lawyer\u2019s request that his client be sent to a locked ward at a Veterans Health Administration facility for a mental health evaluation, instead ordering the suspect be evaluated at a federal lockup in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an individual who, notwithstanding what he appears to have done, has served our country and is quite clearly ill,\u201d Tarnofsky said.<\/p>\n

Arrabaca\u2019s lawyers argued he was suicidal, pointing to the military-style helmet he wore during the attack. He also had two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer, a machete, and a wagon affixed with a sign that said \u201cICE Off Our Streets\u201d with him during his arrest.<\/p>\n

Fry, however, pushed for jail over hospitalization or releasing Arrabaca, noting that while only a few individuals sustained minor injuries, \u201cthis attack could have ended much more tragically\u201d at a building where hundreds of federal employees work, parents leave children at a daycare, and residents use a post office inside. Prosecutors also pointed to Arrabaca previously being prescribed mental health medication in 2020 but said he stopped taking it about a year later.<\/p>\n

SUSPECT IN CUSTODY AFTER EXPLOSION NEAR FEDERAL PLAZA IN NEW YORK CITY<\/a><\/p>\n

Tarnofsky said she considered psychiatric care but had concerns that Arrabaca wouldn\u2019t comply because he had been offered such services before and did not accept them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crime you\u2019re charged with is troubling,\u201d she said to Arrabaca. \u201cThe nature and circumstances, the fact that it was planned over time and carried out at a time when it could cause significant harm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Arrabaca, a 43-year-old Army veteran, appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, where prosecutors alleged he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[419,303,5970,2035,2301,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-302482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-fbi","tag-ice","tag-immigration","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\/302482","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=302482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}