Just before 12:45 a.m. the bomb squad gave the all clear, according to NYPD spokesman J. Peter Donald.
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Instead of instinctively jumping out of the van, the policeman slammed down the gas pedal and sped away from Times Square, onto a quiet street, before placing the device onto the sidewalk, and calling an explosives team. “I was happy. It’s a good day”, he said.
Meneses, who wore a red plastic helmet and was from the borough of Queens, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.
Cybulski became an officer three years ago after two years in a police cadet program.
According to the MTA, the 1, A, B, C and D trains are bypassing the 59th Street-Columbus Circle stop in both directions due to the police activity. We’re driving. We said our prayers.
After the officers saw the device start to “flash” and make “clicking” sounds, the officers made the decision to drive away from Times Square as quickly as possible to an area where there would be less pedestrian and vehicle traffic, Armani said in a press conference Thursday morning. Both are assigned to the Times Square Unit.
Police have effectively shut down Columbus Circle as they try to establish communication with a man who has barricaded himself in a vehicle.
The New York Post reports that a man in a gold SUV flung the device into a marked police auto in midtown Manhattan. Police say the object turned out to include a harmless electrical component wrapped in cloth.
Two officers were in the marked vehicle when the device was tossed inside.
Donald tweeted that the suspect was in police custody around 7:55 a.m.
Footage has been released showing the moment that Hector Meneses, 52, of Queens, threw a suspicious device into a police vehicle near Times Square around midnight.
“We come to work … quite literally not knowing what’s going to be thrown at us”, said Cybulski, a 3-year veteran of the NYPD.
“They put their own lives totally at risk to save the lives of potentially hundreds of tourists and other New Yorkers”. He said that she is now twelve years old.
The surrounding area near the circle was closed off for hours, but by late Thursday morning most roads had been reopened, police said.
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Police said in a statement that no explosives were found in Meneses’ auto or on his person.
