After an hours-long standoff, New York police arrested a man suspected of tossing a device into a marked New York City Police Department van in Times Square on Thursday.
The man, who was holed up in an SUV, tossed an apparent electronic device into the marked NYPD van that had a sergeant and officer inside, NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill said. The incident happened about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday at West 46th Street and Seventh Avenue.
The sergeant in the van drove one block to leave the Times Square area to remove the device.
The bomb squad determined the device to be a hoax, O’Neill said.
Officers spent hours trying to negotiate with the man in the vehicle on Columbus Circle. The standoff shut down the busy area during morning rush hour.
Around 8 a.m., the man was taken into custody and wheeled away in a stretcher. It was not immediately clear why he was taken in a stretcher.
