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The Army veteran accused of attacking a federal building in lower Manhattan using a combination of fireworks, accelerant and a pellet gun was charged with arson Tuesday.
Andrew Arrabaca, who did not enter a plea, was remanded back into custody after appearing before a federal judge.
“This was not a spontaneous or impulsive crime. This was a plan he contemplated over many months and took explicit steps,” Assistant US Attorney Samantha Fry said.
Just before 9 a.m. Monday, people were slowly trickling into the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building when Arrabaca, 43, came to the building “armed with bad intentions,” officials said.
Prosecutors said he spent months planning the attack, purchasing fireworks in Pennsylvania and the pellet guns he used in upstate New York, back in January. They also said he scouted out different locations but settled on 26 Federal Plaza.
“He had targeted this specific entrance because he previously observed it was a busy entrance,” Fry said. She added his behavior was “calculated, targeted and unacceptably dangerous.”
One civilian and two federal employees were injured in the attack, officials said.
His attorney, Jennifer Brown from the Federal Defenders of New York, argued Arrabaca should be taken to a mental health facility for evaluation rather than the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
In front of 26 Federal Plaza, Arrabaca emptied a bucket of gasoline onto the ground outside of an employee entrance and ignited it with a lighter and a “large firework in a canister,” officials said.
A sign saying “ICE off our streets” was affixed to a cart carrying his weapons, they added. Arrabaca had six incendiary devices and other destructive items, officials said.
The nation’s tallest federal building houses dozens of government agencies, including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and thousands of federal employees. There is also an immigration court and a holding facility that jailed migrants have accused of being “dirty, smelly and overcrowded.”
Monday’s attack came as two people were killed in stops by ICE agents in recent weeks in Maine and Texas, stoking tensions as President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda continues in full view before the American public.
After lighting the fire, Arrabaca also pulled out an airsoft rifle — a device commonly used in sports and recreation resembling a gun, but fires less lethal projectiles rather than bullets — and fired five to seven pellets, officials said.
Fry said he told officers moments after his arrest that he didn’t care if he lived and if people were injured in the attack.
Alongside nearby Foley Square, 26 Federal Plaza has been the epicenter of immigration enforcement in New York City, and a flashpoint for protests and incidents between immigration officials and demonstrators.
Last year, migrants were repeatedly arrested at the building while trying to attend their immigration court hearings. Local Democratic officials, including New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, have been arrested at 26 Federal Plaza while protesting immigration policies.
And in the fall, more than a dozen demonstrators were arrested nearby after attempting to stop federal agents from conducting immigration and enforcement activities, a law enforcement official said at the time.
Video on social media shows flames outside the building – and someone tossing something into the flames, leading to what appears to be fireworks going off – before another person extinguishes the fire. Separate video shows law enforcement officers emerging out of a heavy plume of smoke outside the building.
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-Arrabaca enlisted in the Army from 2001 to 2005, where he worked as either a repairman or a mechanic on Patriot missile systems, James Barnacle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI New York Field Office, said Monday afternoon.
When he was arrested, he was yelling “derogatory terms to ICE,” officials said.
On Monday, authorities said they found what they believed to be Arrabaca’s vehicle, and were working to get a warrant to search it. It appears he took the subway down to Penn Station Sunday night, stayed near the Holland Tunnel overnight, and then arrived in the area of the attack around 5:00 a.m., he said.
Fry said Tuesday Arrabaca was living out of his car and had no stable residence with no ties to the community.
Monday’s attack was captured on a New York Police Department camera, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating the incident, according to the FBI. The New York Police Department’s bomb squad also was called in to examine the fireworks and other items in the cart.
District court Judge Robyn Tarnofsky decided to remand Arrabaca because of the weight of the evidence and because he didn’t use the services he had access to before.
“The crime you’re charged with is troubling,” Tarnofsky said.
Tarnofsky did say that Arrabaca needed to be evaluated once he got to the MDC in Brooklyn within 48 hours of his arrival.
“I want the message conveyed that this is someone who needs to be evaluated,” Tarnofsky said. “This is someone who served our country and who is quite clearly ill.”
His attorney, Brown, argued that Arrabaca did not have “a long history of this behavior.” Barnacle, the FBI agent, said Monday Arrabaca had interactions with law enforcement in the past, but nothing to the level of what happened in the attack.
Arrabaca is due back in court on August 4.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Andrew Arrabaca’s last name.
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