{"id":313741,"date":"2026-08-04T20:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313741\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:50:08","slug":"ex-soldier-indicted-on-charges-of-arson-attack-on-nyc-ice-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/313741\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-soldier indicted on charges of arson attack on NYC ICE building"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former U.S. soldier was indicted by a grand jury in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"61\">New York<\/a> on Tuesday on charges of plotting an arson attack on the federal building that houses an<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ice\/\"> Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> field office.<\/p>\n<p>A federal grand jury indicted <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/army\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"1905\">Army<\/a> veteran Andrew Arrabaca on charges that he \u201cused a flammable liquid to ignite a fire at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, threw a firework into the fire that exploded, and lit fireworks at the Federal Building.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The incident outside the ICE facility occurred in late July after prosecutors said Arrabaca planned the firebombing for months. It caused injury to at least one person and \u201csubstantial risk of injury to other persons, including federal employees, security guards and emergency personnel responding to the fire,\u201d the indictment read.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former private has not yet entered a plea. An arraignment date was not immediately scheduled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arrabaca, 43, was a mechanic on Patriot missile systems and was charged on July 21 with arson or explosion causing damage to U.S. government property, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison. Aside from the ICE office, the federal building houses the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/fbi\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"516\">FBI\u2019s<\/a> New York office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> 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<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" data-attachment-id=\"4674603\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/4674593\/soldier-indicted-charges-arson-attack-ice-nyc-building\/attachment\/federal-building-incendiary-device-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26201505864082.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1024,682\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-title=\"Federal Building Incendiary Device\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;The New York City Fire Department and law enforcement respond to an incendiary device outside the New York federal building in lower Manhattan, Monday, July 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Larry Neumeister)&lt;\/p&gt;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26201505864082.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26201505864082.jpg\" alt=\"The New York City Fire Department and law enforcement respond to an incendiary device outside the New York federal building in lower Manhattan, Monday, July 20, 2026, in New York.\" class=\"wp-image-4674603\"  \/>The New York City Fire Department and law enforcement respond to an incendiary device outside the New York federal building in lower Manhattan, Monday, July 20, 2026, in New York. (Larry Neumeister\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/4655189\/suspect-in-custody-explosion-federal-plaza-new-york-city\/\">SUSPECT IN CUSTODY AFTER EXPLOSION NEAR FEDERAL PLAZA IN NEW YORK CITY<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FBI officials have said Arrabaca came armed to the building with 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, according to authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHis alleged acts appear to have been motivated by his anti-Government and anti-ICE beliefs,\u201d FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said. \u201cHis unlawful conduct was immediately thwarted by the heroic response of the Federal Protective Service Officers, NYPD Officers, FBI Special Agents, and FBI Police Officers.\u00a0FBI New York has zero tolerance for violence targeted at federal employees who choose to serve all Americans.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former U.S. soldier was indicted by a grand jury in New York on Tuesday on charges of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5336,5970,2035,415,75,84,83,661,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-313741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-army","tag-fbi","tag-ice","tag-indictments","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-military","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313741","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=313741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}