A 27-year-old man accused of a separate crime was arrested Thursday in relation to the mob that surrounded NYPD police officers and pelted them with snowballs earlier this week.
Gusmane Coulibaly was detained by NYPD officers after the department released images of four people, including Coulibaly, wanted after two officers were injured when a mob of people hurled snowballs at them at Washington Square Park on Monday. The NYPD said that Coulibaly was arrested earlier this month for “attempted robbery in the transit system.”
This morning, the NYPD arrested Gusmane Coulibaly, 27 years old, for assaulting our officers earlier this week in Washington Square Park.
Mr. Coulibaly was previously arrested less than three weeks ago for an attempted robbery in the transit system. pic.twitter.com/IHO2zTC4tr
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) February 26, 2026
The three other suspects wanted by New York police remain at large, the New York Post reported. It remains unclear what charges Coulibaly faces.
New York City’s democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani put himself at odds with other city and state officials, including Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, when he told reporters he disagreed with calls for arrests following the snowball attack.
The mayor urged people to treat the city’s law enforcement with respect, but added that the videos he saw of the incident only showed a snowball fight that “got out of hand.”
“Look, I’ve seen the videos of this snowball fight. I think that it was a snowball fight,” he said, later adding, “I can just tell you from the video I saw it looked like kids at a snowball fight.”
Mamdani’s office doubled down on the mayor’s stance on Thursday, with Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec telling The Daily Wire, “As the mayor has said, police officers deserve to be treated with respect. The videos he saw showed a snowball fight that got out of hand. He does not believe this situation rises to the level of criminal charges.”
The incident took place after a massive storm dumped around two feet of snow on New York City and brought much of the Big Apple to a standstill on Monday.
One video of the incident shows officers attempting to walk through the crowd as people slung snowballs at them and ran up behind them to dump large chunks of snow and ice on their heads. Some people in the crowd stood in front of the officers as they tried to walk through the park, and the officers threw at least two people to the ground. Another video showed a group of police officers fleeing the scene as the crowd continued to hurl snowballs at them. Two officers were treated at the hospital for lacerations on their faces.
Tisch called the mob’s actions “disgraceful” and “criminal,” while Hochul said it is “never acceptable to throw anything at a police officer.”
The NYPD Police Benevolent Association celebrated the arrest of Coulibaly on Thursday and blasted Mayor Mamdani, writing on social media, “A 27-year-old is not a ‘kid,’ @NYCMayor.”
“This individual is an adult with a recent attempted robbery arrest, and your message was that it’s OK for him to assault police officers for doing their job,” the police union added. “This arrest sends a different message. We’re grateful to all who have worked so hard on this case. There is more work to be done…”
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