Some bystanders appeared to barely bat an eye when a man set off a fountain of fireworks then started a blazing fire outside a federal building in Lower Manhattan, according to security camera video released Wednesday.
The surveillance footage from the U.S. Attorney’s Office offered the most complete look yet at the bizarre episode Monday morning outside 26 Federal Plaza, which didn’t seriously injure anyone but led to arson charges against Andrew Arrabaca, a former U.S. Army soldier.
Prosecutors say Arrabaca, 43, confessed to carrying out the attack and has been jailed without bail.
The video shows Arrabaca, who arrived at the building with a little wagon filled with supplies, setting up a large fireworks dispenser, capable of rapidly firing off dozens of rockets.
He ignites it, and rockets start shooting out into the air — then everywhere as the tube shooting off the projectiles topples over.
One hits his wagon and explodes. Others shoot down the sidewalk and into the street as cars drive past.
New Yorkers are famed for their ability to coolly ignore outlandish things happening in front of them, but the reaction of some passersby showed an Olympic level of minding your business.
One pair calmly walks past Arrabaca and the spewing fireworks as if nothing is happening, even as a rocket narrowly misses them and explodes right next to them in a shower of red sparks and smoke. But they dash for cover when Arrabaca pulls out a weapon that looks like a rifle — authorities said it was a pellet gun — and points it toward them.
Finally, Arrabaca dumps out a bucket full of what appears to be bottles, lighting up a large blaze on the sidewalk that engulfs the steps leading to the building’s entrance. At one point during the commotion, a person rides by on a bicycle.
The building houses offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other federal agencies and has been a hub of protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Officials said Arrabaca was toting an anti-ICE sign and made “anti-government and anti-American statements” as he was being arrested. He also had with him two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer and a machete.
Three people sustained minor injuries, including a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building. According to federal prosecutors, Arrabaca plotted the attack for months and considered striking other New York City targets.
He went to upstate New York to buy weapons and Pennsylvania to buy fireworks, prosecutors said. Outside the Manhattan building, he was tackled by a security officer after authorities say he dumped gasoline outside an employee entrance and set the sidewalk on fire.
At Arrabaca’s hearing Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky said he was “quite clearly ill.”
Arrabaca was living in his car and slept in a park the night before the attack, prosecutors said. In 2020, he was prescribed medication for a mental health condition, but he stopped taking it about a year later.
His defense attorney suggested that he be sent to a locked ward at a Veterans Health Administration facility for a mental health evaluation, but he was ordered jailed then evaluated there.
Arrabaca repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2004. He also served a year in the New York Army National Guard. He had no deployments and left the Army as a specialist, an Army spokesperson said.
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Associated Press reporter Safiyah Riddle contributed.
