Domestic machete assault leads to discovery of 'potentially viable explosive device' in car outside East Harlem NYPD precinct

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — The NYPD Bomb Squad and Emergency Service Unit responded to the department’s 25th Precinct in East Harlem on Wednesday afternoon after a domestic assault involving a machete led to the discovery of a “potentially viable improvised explosive device” in a car outside the station house.

Two men, who are cousins, pulled up to the 25th Precinct on East 119th Street at 11:50 a.m. The vehicle’s driver told two uniformed officers, who were assigned to station house security, that he was the victim of a domestic assault.

Police officials said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that the domestic assault took place in the vehicle. The driver told the officers that the passenger had struck him with a machete in the back of the head, “causing a bleeding bruise.”

The suspect was immediately removed into the station house and the machete was secured when the victim indicated that there was an explosive device in the car, at which point reinforcements responded to the scene.

Commanding Officer of the Bomb Squad Mark Torre described the device as a “potentially viable improvised explosive device.” A further technical investigation will determine if it was able to explode properly.

“It was fairly large. It’s not small. If it was able to function as designed, what we would say in my parlance is it was capable of causing death or serious physical injury to anyone in proximity, and property damage,” Torre said. “It’s just impossible to determine the degree.”

Both the suspect and victim have a long arrest history, with 10 to 20 arrests, police said. However, none of the crimes were described as “major.”

It is not immediately clear whether the station house was a target, but police said that the suspect has “potential emotional issues.”

“Because of some other information we have, [the suspect] seems to be rambling on about incoherent ideas and paranoias and things like that,” Deputy Chief at Counterterrorism Division Jason Huerta said.
“I don’t think he was heading anywhere specifically.”

More information will be released as it becomes available, police said.