Man Arrested in New York Snowball Fight That Police Said Injured Officers

The incident, which began as a playful event, shifted in tone when the police appeared. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said it did not appear to be a crime, while other officials called for arrests.

The police on Thursday arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with the striking of two police officers with snow and ice during a snowball fight in Washington Square Park earlier this week, the latest twist in an escalating political fight.

The man, Gusmane Coulibaly, was taken into custody on Thursday morning and charged with assaulting the officers, according to the police. The department was still seeking three other men, two of them believed to be between the ages of 18 and 20, who were also wanted for assault.

The arrest three days after the episode in the park marked a new escalation in the saga, which has fiercely divided New Yorkers and lawmakers and has prompted an early split between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

The episode began as a giant, citywide snowball fight social media creators organized in celebration of the blizzard that pummeled the city on Sunday and Monday, closing schools and keeping many commuters home from work. But the gathering soon escalated when several police officers, called to control the crowd, walked in and were pelted with snowballs and large packs of snow.

The fight was captured in several videos, which show the officers walking through the park, at first apparently chuckling as a few snowball sail at them, but later becoming tense as more and larger snowballs continue to fly at their necks and faces.

Another video shows the officers retreating to their cars outside the park as a large group of what appears to be teenagers chases after them, whooping and tossing snowballs. The officers largely do not appear to engage with the snowball throwers, but two officers can be seen shoving people into the snowbanks as the officers run toward a bathroom.

The police said two officers were later taken to a nearby hospital with injuries to their necks and faces.

Hours after the videos surfaced on Monday, Commissioner Tisch called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal” and said detectives were investigating the episode. She was joined by a chorus of lawmakers, police union representatives and critics of the mayor, who condemned the behavior as aggressive and in some cases illegal.

Mr. Mamdani, for his part, on Tuesday morning praised the police for their work during the blizzard and exhorted New Yorkers to be respectful. But later that afternoon he broke with the commissioner, saying the situation appeared to be little more than a snowball fight and that he did not believe anyone should be charged.

As the political saga played out in news conferences and on X on Tuesday and Wednesday, a torrent of memes and social media posts surfaced online mocking the police officers’ outrage and criticizing them for spoiling the fun.

It was unclear on Thursday if the Manhattan district attorney’s office would proceed with charges against Mr. Coulibaly, or any others who could be arrested. But the arrest had already begun generating praise from the city’s police unions on social media.

Mr. Coulibaly has been previously arrested in New York City in connection with an attempted robbery in the transit system, the police said. He pleaded not guilty earlier in February to charges of robbery, petty larceny and harassment and was released on his own recognizance, court records show.

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