An individual was taken into custody after allegedly setting off fireworks in front of a federal building in New York City on Monday morning, an incident that injured two people and prompted an investigation by the FBI.
The New York Police Department reported that the individual was seen “menacing” people with a firearm and used an incendiary device to ignite fireworks around 8:30 a.m. outside 26 Federal Plaza. The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the incident, according to a statement from the FBI.
26 Federal Plaza contains offices for several federal agencies, including the FBI’s New York Field Office, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ New York field office, and an immigration court.
Law enforcement officials identified the individual as a 43-year-old anti-Ice activist who lit a shopping cart filled with fireworks using a flame accelerant. The incident occurred weeks after two fatal shootings involving ICE officers, one on July 7 in Houston where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, was killed, and another a few days later in Maine where Johan Sebastián Guerrero, 25, was killed by an ICE officer.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., expressed gratitude for the police response and condemned the actions. "Acts of terror and violence have no place in our City and will never be tolerated," Jeffries stated. "The individual responsible for this must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."