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New York Police Standoff Ends Peacefully at Columbus Circle New York Police Standoff With Queens Man Ends Quietly at Columbus Circle
(about 4 hours later)
An hourslong standoff that shut down Columbus Circle in Manhattan ended peacefully just before 8 a.m. on Thursday, as police officers took a man who had been inside a vehicle into custody, the New York Police Department said. An hourslong standoff between the police and a man in a sport utility vehicle in Columbus Circle in Manhattan that disrupted traffic and subway service ended peacefully Thursday morning, when officers took the man into custody, the New York Police Department said.
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. At one point the man, Hector Meneses, 52, of Elmhurst, Queens, put on a red plastic helmet and said to the police negotiators, “I have a bomb strapped to me and I want to die,” William Aubry, the assistant police chief in charge of the Manhattan South detective squad, said at a news conference after Mr. Meneses was taken from the scene.
The police van, which was occupied by two officers, drove away from the crowded area, then brought the package onto a sidewalk and called in the bomb squad, the police said. The police used a robot to communicate with Mr. Meneses and to look inside the vehicle, William J. Bratton, the police commissioner, said. After the bomb squad had determined that the vehicle was safe, police officers moved in to arrest Mr. Meneses around 7:45 a.m., using the robot to break a window on the vehicle and use pepper spray on Mr. Meneses, the police said.
After several Midtown blocks were briefly shut down, the package 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 police said Mr. Meneses was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital for an evaluation.
The man fled as the authorities put out a call with the vehicle description. Around 2:10 a.m. on Thursday, the police found a vehicle matching the description near Columbus Circle. Inside the vehicle, the police found 19 LED-type lights, as well as a pot with a cover that police believe was meant to simulate a homemade pressure-cooker bomb, Chief Aubry said.
The man inside refused to leave his vehicle and was seen putting a “red plastic helmet on his head,” Chief O’Neill said. It was unclear whether he was armed. Mr. Meneses held a remote in his hand, “as if he were simulating, I’m going to press this, and I’m going to detonate if you come close,” Chief Aubry said. “Nothing that we know of right now comes anything close to an improvised explosive device,” he said.
For several hours, people arriving for work on Thursday morning 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. The police said that Mr. Meneses had last worked as a cabdriver, and did not have an arrest record.
A visitor to the city from Wisconsin, Sue Urbush, was in Columbus Circle during the standoff on her way to Times Square to do some sightseeing. The episode began around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, when Mr. Meneses, driving past, tossed a suspicious object from his vehicle into the window of a parked Police Department van near West 46th Street and Seventh Avenue in Times Square, the police said.
The two officers inside drove the van about a block and a half away, in order to get it away from the crowded area, the police said.
Commissioner Bratton later called the officers heroes. “I cannot emphasize how proud I am of them,” he said.
But after several Midtown blocks were briefly shut down, it was determined that the package was a “hoax device,” James P. O’Neill, the chief of department for the New York Police Department, said early Thursday. It consisted of a candle, a cylindrical object, an electrical component and LED-style lights, wrapped in aluminum foil and a white cloth, officials said.
Around 2:10 a.m. on Thursday, the police spotted a vehicle near Columbus Circle that matched the description of the one in Times Square, and the standoff ensued.
For several hours, people arriving in Columbus Circle for work on Thursday morning were turned away from their buildings, as police officers talked with Mr. Meneses near West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Subways were bypassing the 59th Street station.
A visitor to the city from Wisconsin, Sue Urbush, was in Columbus Circle during the standoff, on her way to Times Square to do some sightseeing.
“And to think all my friends were telling me to be careful in New York and then this happens. Oh, well,” Ms. Urbush, 69, said. “I live in a very small town. I’m used to watching things happen in other places, so my friends are depending on me to tell them what’s going on. I took photographs of the fire trucks for my grandson.”“And to think all my friends were telling me to be careful in New York and then this happens. Oh, well,” Ms. Urbush, 69, said. “I live in a very small town. I’m used to watching things happen in other places, so my friends are depending on me to tell them what’s going on. I took photographs of the fire trucks for my grandson.”