{"id":388878,"date":"2026-10-31T12:05:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/388878\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T12:05:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:05:02","slug":"influencer-who-pelted-nypd-with-snowballs-lands-equivalent-of-parking-ticket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/388878\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Influencer’ who pelted NYPD with snowballs lands equivalent of parking ticket"},"content":{"rendered":"

His case melted away nearly as quickly as his snowball.<\/p>\n

A wannabe social-media influencer arrested for hurling a snowball at an NYPD officer in Washington Square Park <\/a>will have his criminal record scrubbed if he does 20 hours of community service, according to a plea deal hashed out Friday.<\/p>\n

Gusmane Coulibaly, 28, pled down to a harassment \u201cviolation\u201d \u2013 the legal equivalent of a parking ticket \u2013 after the NYPD initially tried to have him charged him with felony assault for hitting an officer in the face with the frozen blob during the viral February fracas<\/a> in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The charge will be wiped from Coulibaly\u2019s record if he completes 20 hours of community service for the Parks Department, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg\u2019s office, which said in court that the outcome was \u201cappropriate and consistent with this defendant\u2019s conduct that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD tried to charge Gusmane Coulibaly with felony assault stemming from the viral incident. DCPI<\/p>\n

The plea deal comes months after a concerned bystander called 911 while watching a massive snowball fight break out during an epic blizzard Feb. 23. Video of the scene showed several arriving cops being pelted with snowballs. Coulibaly was arrested days later after the NYPD circulated photos of him in the media.<\/p>\n

The \u201c3rd Annual Sidetalk Snowball Fight\u201d<\/a> appears to have been organized by the chaotic New York City-based Instagram show Sidetalk and was also advertised by other social-media accounts.<\/p>\n

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch slammed the snowball throwers as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and \u201ccriminal\u201d in a statement afterward, while the Police Benevolent Association, the city\u2019s largest union repping NYPD cops, blasted the icy episode as a \u201cdespicable attack\u201d on police.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged the public not to hurl snow at police but was accused of downplaying the incident by calling it \u201ckids throwing snowballs at NYPD officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coulibaly leaves Manhattan Criminal Court after his arraignment Feb. 26, 2026. Kevin C Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cTreat them with respect. If anyone\u2019s catching a snowball, it\u2019s me,\u201d Hizzoner wrote on X, a response that critics called flippant.<\/p>\n

Coulibaly \u201cregrets his decision to throw a snowball at the police,\u201d his lawyer, George Vomvolakis, told The Post on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis intention was never to be disrespectful, but he understands that what he did may have been disrespectful,\u201d his lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Coulibaly has separately been arrested twice in the past year for terrorizing unsuspecting New Yorkers in alleged robberies \u2013 which his lawyer claimed are in fact part of his \u201cprank\u201d social-media videos where he claims that people owe him money and films their reactions.<\/p>\n

The Bronx native was arrested Feb. 6 for allegedly trying to rob a confused subway rider in his home borough, but the charges were tossed after Coulibaly maintained that he was just joking around to make his videos, Vomvolakis said.<\/p>\n

NYPD officers are pelted with snowballs as they respond to a snowy, chaotic scene in Washington Square Park in Manhattan this past winter. FNTV<\/p>\n

The oddball clout-chaser was separately busted for an alleged East Harlem robbery earlier this month where he was accused of flashing what appeared to be the handle of a gun in his waistband and trying to rob someone selling items on the sidewalk on E. 116th St, court papers show.<\/p>\n

He pleaded not guilty in that case, was released on his own recognizance and is due back in Manhattan Supreme Court on Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

Coulibaly claims that he never meant to rob anyone in the East Harlem episode and was again merely filming one of his \u201cprank\u201d videos, said Vomvolakis, who is not repping him in the alleged robbery case.<\/p>\n

PBA President Patrick Hendry on Friday blasted the snowball-case plea deal as \u201cweak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not surprised that we\u2019re getting weak justice in this case because DA Alvin Bragg and Mayor Mamdani made sure of that from the beginning,\u201d Hendry told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy downplaying this attack on police officers, the mayor and DA gave this individual a free pass to keep causing chaos on our streets \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly what he has done,\u201d Hendry said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yet another consequence of having a DA who is more focused on punishing cops for doing our job than protecting the people of Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His case melted away nearly as quickly as his snowball. A wannabe social-media influencer arrested for hurling a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,57,9,24,63,103,60636,58],"class_list":["post-388878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-snowball","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388878","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=388878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}