An anti-ICE activist hauling weapons was arrested after he started a fire that injured three people outside a Manhattan building that houses immigration enforcement, the FBI and other federal agencies, officials said.
James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, said Andrew Arrabaca, 43, fired two airsoft rifles toward the building and had several knives, two axes and a machete in his possession when security guards tackled him to the ground.
The suspect also had “anti-ICE literature” and told police following his arrest that “he was OK if he hurt or killed people going in and out of the building, whether they were federal employees or civilians,” Mr. Barnacle said.
“I will say that 26 Federal Plaza has long been a target of extremists of terrorists, and today the extremism was brought here,” Mr. Barnacle said at a news conference. “The building was attacked. Mr. Arrabaca was looking to injure people and harm people.”
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Officials further described Mr. Arrabaca, an Army veteran, as an “anti-American, anti-government extremist.”
Authorities said the suspect doused the building’s outside steps in gasoline before setting them ablaze with a firework around 8:20 a.m. Monday.
ABC News posted photos showing a man using a bright orange bucket to dump liquid outside the building, and then igniting a large flame on the liquid.
A federal security guard detained the suspect, authorities said, and recovered a bag with weapons and a manifesto inside.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the suspect is in custody and the three victims suffered minor injuries in the lower Manhattan attack. Mr. Patel said the incident is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
He said the suspect also was carrying a sign that read “ICE Off Our Streets” during the attack.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called for ICE to be abolished, called the attack “deeply disturbing.”
“I’m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody,” he wrote on X.
