There were two bomb scares this morning in New York City, both determined a hoax. The suspect is in custody, thanks to New York’s finest.
The 52-year-old man was taken to a hospital for evaluation hours after he barricaded himself in a Chrysler SUV, donned a red helmet and refused to communicate with authorities. Earlier, police say he had indicated there were explosives in his vehicle.
The NYPD said that there were no injuries in the standoff and that the man’s SUV was ultimately deemed safe by bomb squads. The standoff turned the morning commute for many straphangers upside down, as 1, A, B, C and D trains bypassed the Columbus Circle station for hours.
The drama began shortly before midnight, when police say the man, in a dark SUV, threw a suspicious object — later determined to be a candle attached to electrical components and wrapped in cloth — into an NYPD van parked in the heart of Times Square, touching off a bomb scare.
When police officers Sgt. Hameed Armani and officer Peter Cybulski saw the object in the van, they didn’t panic. They didn’t run. Instead, they stayed in the car and started driving away from Times Square as quickly as they could until the bomb exploded.
Thankfully, it never did. But the point is, they were willing to die to spare the lives of the strangers around them. That is the mark of a true hero.
