The Boston Globe29%
Ex-soldier started a fire and fired a pellet gun outside a New York federal building, FBI says 16%
By MICHAEL R. SISAK16% JAMIE STENGLE14%
7/20/2026, 4:38:14 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Ambiguity (Equivocation), Availability Heuristic, and Appeal to Emotion, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 14.9% saturation with 113 hits. Analysis detected 713 faulty-reasoning hits from 760 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32% and a BS Rank of 16% (18,437 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 84.20% of the article peer group.
NEW YORK — A former Army soldier toting an anti-ICE sign set off fireworks, lit a fire, and shot a pellet gun Monday morning outside a Manhattan federal office building, injuring three people before security officers subdued him, authorities said.
Andrew Arrabaca, 43, went to the building known as 26 Federal Plaza “armed with bad intentions,” made “antigovernment and anti-American statements” as he was being arrested, and told investigators he didn’t care if he killed people, said James Barnacle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
“The building was attacked,” Barnacle said at a news conference on the street where the incident occurred.
“Mr.
Arrabaca was looking to injure people and harm people.”
Among the injured was a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building, which also houses offices for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, and other federal agencies.
The building has been a hub of protests against President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
No charges had been announced against Arrabaca as of Monday evening.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating, though Barnacle declined to classify the attack as an act of terrorism.
It was not immediately clear whether Arrabaca had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
Arrabaca showed up outside 26 Federal Plaza around 8:30 a.m. wearing a military-style helmet and hauling a cart affixed with a sign that said “ICE Off Our Streets,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
His last known address was in Harlem, Tisch said, though he has also lived in Poughkeepsie — about 69 miles (111 kilometers) north of the city.
According to Barnacle, Arrabaca poured gasoline on the ground outside an employee entrance and ignited it with a lighter and a large firework, which also caught fire.
He then pulled out an airsoft rifle and fired five to seven pellets at the building before two Federal Protective Service officers and a security contractor ran up and took him into custody, Barnacle said.
Arrabaca, who repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2005, “yelled derogatory terms” and “used bad words” about ICE as he was being arrested, Barnacle said.
“He is an anti-American, antigovernment extremist,” Barnacle said.
“We know that from what he said.
We know that from what he said post-arrest.
And we know that from his actions that he tried to take today.”
Tisch, citing security video, offered a slightly different sequence of events.
She said Arrabaca first lit a bundle of fireworks and then, as they began to smoke, pulled the pellet gun from his coat and fired at the building.
Then, she said, he grabbed an orange bucket from his cart, dumped a flammable liquid near some bushes lining the building’s perimeter, and started a fire.
Videos and photos from the scene showed a fire on the sidewalk outside the building with a plume of smoke, as well as officers restraining a person and taking them away.
An initial 911 call reported an active shooter, Tisch said.
Subsequent calls reported an explosion and a man setting off fireworks, she said.
In addition to the pellet gun, Barnacle said, Arrabaca had two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer, and a machete.
Two government employees and a civilian, the person going to immigration court, were injured.
The Department of Homeland Security, which runs the Federal Protective Service and ICE, said a bystander was grazed by the fireworks.
A security officer who tackled Arrabaca sustained minor injuries, the agency said.
The New York City Fire Department said one person was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.
“What occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media.
“I’m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody.”
The building, where agents have carried out chaotic and sometimes violent arrests in the hallway as migrants leave hearings, is in a cluster of government buildings and courthouses in Lower Manhattan, a few blocks from City Hall, NYPD headquarters, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Security at 26 Federal Plaza was increased dramatically in the 1990s after it was revealed that followers of Egyptian sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman had included the building in a list of five New York City landmarks that were targeted for bombings.
A bulletproof security booth was installed and a street outside the building’s parking garage was closed to most vehicular traffic.
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