A former Army soldier carried axes, a machete, and “anti-ICE” flyers to a Manhattan federal building, then lit gasoline and opened fire with a pellet gun.
Story Snapshot
- Andrew Arrabaca, a former U.S. Army soldier, is accused of attacking 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan with fire and a pellet gun.
- Officials say he brought gasoline, fireworks, and multiple weapons, and made anti-government and anti-immigration enforcement statements.
- Three people suffered minor injuries before federal officers tackled and arrested him at the scene.
- The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is treating the case as an extremist attack on a symbol of federal authority.
A deliberate attack on a key federal hub
Federal officials say the attack began just after 8:30 a.m. outside 26 Federal Plaza, the large federal building in lower Manhattan that houses immigration court, the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Investigators identified the suspect as 43-year-old Andrew Arrabaca, a former U.S. Army soldier who once worked on Patriot missile systems as a repairman. Authorities say he did not stumble into the building by accident; they describe his actions as planned and targeted.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office, Arrabaca arrived with a cart carrying “anti-ICE literature” and several weapons, including two axes, a machete, a hammer, three knives, fireworks, and an airsoft or pellet gun.
Officials say he first launched a bundle of fireworks or incendiary devices, then poured gasoline along a stairwell and near an employee entrance before igniting it, sending flames and smoke up the building’s facade. Investigators say he fired five to seven pellets toward the building during the chaos, prompting a fast response from federal security officers.
A former U.S. Army soldier toting an anti-ICE sign set off fireworks, lit a fire and shot a pellet gun Monday morning outside a Manhattan federal office building, injuring three people before security officers subdued him, authorities said. pic.twitter.com/SAPhdjL0SH
— KTLA (@KTLA) July 20, 2026
How the attack unfolded and how it ended
Witness accounts, cited by New York City’s police commissioner and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, describe a tense sequence. They say Arrabaca lit a bundle that looked like fireworks, creating loud blasts and smoke, then dumped a bucket of flammable liquid between bushes and stairways along the perimeter before setting it on fire.
During the incident, officials say he shouted anti-government and anti-immigration enforcement statements, including insults aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Federal Protective Service officers and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents moved in quickly. Officials say a security officer tackled Arrabaca, ending the attack while flames were still climbing the building. Three people suffered minor injuries: two government employees and one civilian immigrant who had come to the building for a status hearing that morning.
Fire crews put out the blaze, and investigators recovered the weapons and literature from the scene. At the time of reporting, charges are still being finalized by federal prosecutors, but the case is already in the hands of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
What officials say about his motives and ideology
Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director James Barnacle did not mince words. He publicly called Arrabaca “an anti-American, anti-government extremist” and said Arrabaca admitted that he targeted the building and came with “bad intentions.”
Barnacle told reporters Arrabaca was “looking to injure and harm people” and that his cart of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement materials matched his angry statements during the attack. The Department of Homeland Security described him as an “anti-ICE rioter,” tying his actions directly to hostility toward federal immigration enforcement.
From a common-sense view, this framing makes sense. When someone hauls gasoline, fireworks, axes, and a pellet gun to a federal building, then lights a fire and shoots toward it while shouting anti-government lines, that looks less like random protest and more like domestic political violence. At the same time, this was not a mass-casualty event.
Research on terrorism in the United States shows that over ninety percent of attacks from 1970 to 2013 did not cause deaths, even when they used fire or explosives. Arrabaca’s case fits that pattern: low lethality, but high symbolic impact.
Part of a wider pattern of anti-government attacks
26 Federal Plaza is not just another office building. It is a dense symbol of federal power over immigration, law enforcement, and courts in one of the country’s biggest cities. Researchers who track domestic terrorism note that attacks on state targets like government buildings have often been driven by people with anti-government views.
Between 1992 and 2022, there were hundreds of plots and attacks on such targets, many involving lone offenders or small groups enraged at federal authority. In other words, this incident fits a long-running pattern that has quietly grown beneath the daily news cycle.
The federal response also follows a clear script. The Joint Terrorism Task Force exists to investigate acts of political violence and domestic terrorism, especially when someone is trying to recruit, radicalize, or threaten the rights and safety of citizens.
When a former soldier, now labeled an anti-government extremist, allegedly tries to burn and shoot a federal immigration hub, that mission plainly applies.
For many Americans who value law, order, and secure borders, this case raises a sobering point: federal officers on the ground, not slogans online, are the ones standing between heated rhetoric and real harm. It also shows how quickly political rage can translate into physical danger when ideology crosses the line into action.
Sources:
apnews.com, usatoday.com, facebook.com, instagram.com, x.com, washingtonpost.com, start.umd.edu, dhs.gov
