Shotgun man in UN faceoff
3 tense hours end without injury
A man with a shotgun and a stash of writings about the environment was arrested Thursday after he threatened to kill himself during a three-hour standoff in front of the United Nations, police said.
The 64-year-old man drove to Manhattan from Florida and had a single buckshot shell in his shotgun, with the word “justice” and his name scrawled on the round in marker, a police source told the Daily News.
A 911 call from inside the UN sent cops to First Ave. near 41st St. about 10:40 a.m. after repeated sightings of the man, who was standing in front of the entrance with a shotgun.
“Based on statements he made, we knew early on that this did not appear to be terror-related. He had some papers he wanted delivered to the UN,” NYPD Special Operations Chief Harry Wedin said. “The dialogue went back and forth about how we might be able to accommodate his request and bring the incident to a peaceful conclusion.”
The white-haired man, wearing a red long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans, was pacing back and forth with the weapon under his chin, complaining about the environment and problems with his family.
There was an unattended plastic bag near him, prompting a response by the NYPD bomb squad, but the bag was full of clothes, police sources said. A bottle of water and a bullhorn were on a ledge behind the man, cops said.
Cops closed off surrounding streets and the Robert Moses Playground before beginning a dialogue with the man, who appeared to be muttering to himself. Police engaged him from about 20 feet away.
A Parks Department worker who wouldn’t give her name said she was in the playground when police converged.
“All of a sudden there was a rush of police cars, like, whoosh. They saw the kids here and said, ‘You gotta go.’”
More than 20 children and at least one teacher were there, the parks employee said.
“They had me close the park.” Finally, at 1:40 p.m., the man handed an officer a red folder, put down his gun and surrendered.
The folder had letters to hospitals and doctors, as well as writings about climate change.
“They didn’t have any specific meaning, anything related to terrorism. They were medical papers and some other documents — nothing that told a story,” NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin
Tucker said. “There was no written note from him, so nothing in that regard.”
The papers also referenced St. Helena, the island in the South Atlantic where the French emperor Napoleon died in exile in 1821, a police source said.
Tucker added, “Essentially, he wanted the UN to receive his documents, which is ultimately what we agreed to do . ... He said if we
could do that he would put the gun down and end it, which is exactly what happened.”
Cops looked over the pages and then handed them someone inside the UN.
The NYPD bomb squad also checked out his room at the Millennium Hotel in Midtown, but found no explosives.
Charges against the man were pending.