NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A former U.S. Army soldier was charged with arson and jailed without bail on Tuesday after prosecutors say he confessed to carrying out a fiery attack on a Manhattan federal office building where immigration hearings are held.
Andrew Arrabaca, 43, for months and considered striking other New York City targets before setting a fire, lighting fireworks and firing a pellet gun Monday morning outside 26 Federal Plaza, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Fry said.
Arrabaca told investigators that he understood people could’ve been hurt or killed and that he he was willing to accept his own death in the process, Fry said. She called his actions 鈥渃alculated, targeted and unacceptably dangerous.”
Three people sustained minor injuries, including a person who had an immigration court hearing at the building, which also houses offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI. The building has been a magnet for protests against President Donald Trump鈥檚 .
Arrabaca, wearing glasses and a black sweatshirt, sat quietly between his lawyers at his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He nodded at times as they explained what was happening. He was not required to enter a plea. The charge, arson or explosion causing damage to U.S. government property, carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky ordered Arrabaca jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn, rejecting his lawyer’s suggestion that he be sent to a locked ward at a Veterans Health Administration facility for a mental health evaluation. Instead, the judge said she wants Arrabaca to be evaluated at the jail as soon as possible.
鈥淭his is an individual who, notwithstanding what he appears to have done, has served our country and is quite clearly ill,鈥� Tarnofsky said.
Arrabaca was living in his car and slept in a park the night before the attack, Fry said. In 2020, she said, he was prescribed medication for a mental health condition but he stopped taking it about a year later.
A military-style helmet that authorities say Arrabaca wore during the attack had words on it suggesting he was suicidal, defense lawyer Jennifer Brown said.
Brown noted that Arrabaca has no criminal history and, until recently, had a long history of employment. He is a U.S. citizen and a lifelong New York resident, she said. He grew up in Queens, public records show, and was linked to an address in Poughkeepsie.
Arrabaca repaired Patriot missile systems while in the Army from 2001 to 2004. He also served a year in the New York Army National Guard. He had no deployments and left the Army as a specialist, an Army spokesperson said.
Fry, arguing for jail instead of hospitalization or release, argued that Arrabaca is a danger to the community and a flight risk. Brown conceded 鈥渢he nature of this offense is undoubtedly dangerous,鈥� but that Arrabaca鈥檚 鈥渆xpressed intention was not to cause damage to people but to cause damage to property.鈥�
Arrabaca started planning the attack as far back as January and went to upstate New York to buy weapons and Pennsylvania to buy fireworks, Fry said. Outside the Manhattan building, he was tackled by a security officer after authorities say he dumped gasoline outside an employee entrance and set the sidewalk on fire.
Arrabaca had two axes, three fixed-blade knives, a hammer, a machete and a wagon affixed with a sign that said 鈥淚CE Off Our Streets,” authorities said. As he was being arrested, he made 鈥渁nti-government and anti-American statements鈥� and derogatory remarks about ICE, James Barnacle, the head of the FBI鈥檚 New York field office, said at a news conference on Monday.
Fry said that while only a few people were injured, 鈥渢his attack could have ended much more tragically鈥� at a building where hundreds of federal employees work, parents leave children at a daycare and members of the public use a post office inside.
Fry said there is 鈥渙verwhelming evidence of his guilt鈥� including 鈥渉is own fulsome confession.”
Tarnofsky said she seriously considered the psychiatric ward option but rejected it because she wasn鈥檛 convinced Arrabaca would comply with treatment.
鈥淭he crime you鈥檙e charged with is troubling,” she said, addressing Arrabaca directly. 鈥淭he nature and circumstances, the fact that it was planned over time and carried out at a time when it could cause significant harm.鈥�
鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 done on a Sunday when no one was at the building,” the judge said.
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Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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