Chaos in the Big Apple as SWAT teams are locked in six-hour stand-off with suspect who threw hoax bomb at police
The suspect who barricaded himself inside an SUV was arrested after armed police first sent in a bomb robot and then pepper sprayed him
New York was thrown into lockdown chaos today during a six-hour armed siege with a man who threw a hoax bomb into a police car.
The suspect, who was wearing a red helmet and body armour, was surrounded by SWAT teams after barricading himself into an SUV in Manhattan.
The area was sealed off as police negotiators tried to coax him from the vehicle and at one point sent in a bomb robot in a bid to force his surrender.
The near six-hour stand-off in Columbus Circle eventually ended when cops were forced to pepper spray him.
The suspect, identified by police as Hector Meneses, of Queens, New York, was arrested at around 8am.
“It appears he is suicidal,” said one police source. “But he has no prior [psychological] history — no criminal history found either.”
Hours earlier, police said Meneses, 52, flung what appeared to be a crudely made contraption into the police car at Duffy Square in Times Square about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
An officer and a sergeant moved the vehicle to 46th Street and Sixth Avenue, where they placed the device — which appeared to be a flashlight wrapped and candle wrapped in tin foil — on the sidewalk, away from pedestrians, sources said.
The cops then got out of the vehicle and the bomb squad responded. It gave the all-clear shortly after 1am.
At around 2 a.m., cops spotted and stopped the suspect’s Chrysler Aspen, but he refused to get out of the car, prompting the standoff.
“Upon stopping the SUV, a male driver was observed placing a red plastic helmet on his head,” said NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill at a morning briefing.
“The male did not communicate with the officers, who then called for backup.”
Dozens of officers, their guns drawn, were surrounding the car, but the driver, who was also wearing some kind of body armor, refused to get out. The situation was ongoing on as of 7am.
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Cops and SWAT team members cleared the circle as they brought in equipment to deal with the man, who police officials said might be emotionally disturbed.
At one point, cops sent a bomb robot right up to the driver’s side window to try to get the man to surrender.
NYPD spokesman J. Peter Donald tweeted just before 4:15 a.m. that the NYPD Emergency Service Unit was in Columbus Circle “with a person and vehicle similar to the one that threw a hoax device at officers earlier.”
Subway service into Columbus Circle was suspended – as the 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, and D trains were bypassing the area.
