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New York Bomb Squad Called After Package Thrown at Police Van New York Police Standoff Ends Peacefully at Columbus Circle
(about 7 hours later)
The New York Police Department briefly shut down traffic in Midtown on Wednesday night as it investigated a suspicious object thrown at a police van. An hourslong police standoff that shut down Columbus Circle in Manhattan ended peacefully just before 8 a.m. on Thursday, as officers took the man who had been inside a vehicle into custody, the New York Police Department said.
The department’s bomb squad responded to 45th Street and Avenue of the Americas to investigate the package around 11:30 p.m., the authorities said. The police determined it not to be a threat shortly before 1 a.m. on Thursday. The episode started around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, the police said, when an unidentified man in a sport utility vehicle threw a suspicious object into the window of a parked Police Department van near West 46th Street and Seventh Avenue in Times Square.
The police said the occupant of a gold sport utility vehicle was seen throwing the package at the van and then fled. For about 30 minutes, Avenue of the Americas was closed between 45th and 47th Streets, and 46th Street was closed between Fifth and Seventh Avenues as the police investigated. The police van, which was occupied by two officers, drove away from the crowded area popular with tourists, then brought the package onto a sidewalk and called in the bomb squad, the police said.
After briefly shutting down several Midtown blocks, it was determined to be a “hoax device,” James P. O’Neill, the chief of department for the police, said early Thursday morning. It consisted of a candle, a cylindrical object, an electrical component and an LED, all wrapped in a white cloth, Chief O’Neill said.
The man fled as the authorities put out a call with the vehicle description. Around 2:10 a.m. on Thursday, the police caught up with a vehicle matching the description near Columbus Circle.
The man inside refused to leave his vehicle and was seen putting a “red plastic helmet on his head,” Chief O’Neill said. Emergency Service Unit workers were negotiating with him. It was unclear whether he was armed.
For several hours, people arriving for work were turned away from their buildings near the busy traffic circle, as emergency workers talked with the man holed up inside a sport utility vehicle near West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Subways were passing the 59th Street station.