Former Army veteran charged after arson attack at 26 Federal Plaza
Surveillance video showed Andrew Arrabaca lighting fireworks and gasoline outside 26 Federal Plaza, injuring three people before federal prosecutors charged him with arson.
Federal prosecutors charged Andrew Arrabaca after surveillance video showed the 43-year-old former U.S. Army soldier setting off fireworks, pouring gasoline onto a stairwell and firing a pellet gun outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan around 8:30 a.m. Monday. Three people were injured in the attack, and Federal Protective Service officers, the NYPD and the FBI helped contain the scene at 26 Federal Plaza.
He also fired five to seven pellets from an airsoft gun toward the north side of the building, sending flames and smoke up the facade before security officers subdued him.
Prosecutors charged that Arrabaca went to 26 Federal Plaza “armed with bad intentions” and made anti-government and anti-American statements while he was being arrested. He told investigators he did not care if he killed people. He carried an anti-ICE sign, and the cart he used to move the explosive material read “ICE off our str...” before he was stopped.
Arrabaca, who served in the Army from 2001 to 2005, was denied bail after the attack. A defense lawyer said he should be treated in a locked-ward Veterans Health Administration psychiatric unit.
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