Multiple New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were struck in the face and head with snowballs and hardened ice while responding to the large crowd in Washington Square Park after the blizzard.
Police unions describe the social media‑organized meet‑up as a deliberate assault, as two officers were treated for minor injuries, including a bruised eye and headache.
New York's finest arrested 27-year-old Gusmane Coulibaly – a Bronx resident and social media content creator with a rap sheet that includes robbery, petty larceny, and harassment – and charged him with assaulting a police officer, obstructing governmental administration, and disorderly conduct.
Hours later, Coulibaly was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court and freed on supervised release. After reviewing the evidence, Manhattan prosecutors declined to pursue an assault charge against him, saying they were unable to prove that an officer suffered a physical injury caused directly by Coulibaly's conduct.
Officers are still looking for three other individuals they say assaulted police during the incident, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Lieutenant Randy Sutton (Ret.) is not surprised that anti-police Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not see a problem.
"To me, it was a snowball fight that got out of hand, and it should be treated accordingly,” the mayor said Wednesday, indicating he does not believe the incident warrants criminal charges.
Sutton predicts the unrelated felony charges Coulibaly faces for attempted robbery in the transit system could be reduced, simply because Mamdani hates the NYPD.
"Mamdani criticized the police officers who shot a guy who was attacking them with a knife," the retired officer points out. "He criticized the police and said that this individual should not be prosecuted."
He says Mamdani's entire administration is an anti-police "joke," which puts an enormous strain on the NYPD.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the snowball fight "disgraceful" and "criminal" and said the department is investigating.
"I fear Commissioner Tisch is not long for that job, because she is in complete disagreement with Mamdani when it comes down to the NYPD," Sutton tells AFN.
He adds that the mayor does not have the ability to stop the prosecution, as that is "completely up to the district attorney."
He remembers, though, that District Attorney Alvin Bragg is "no friend of law enforcement, either."
