According to reports, “Officers spotted the suspect’s SUV at around 2 a.m. Thursday at Columbus Circle and pulled it over”.
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The man, who was wearing a red helmet and sunglasses, remained for almost six hours inside his vehicle Thursday morning but was not believed to be a threat to the public.
Police are looking into whether the man in the SUV is the person wanted for throwing a suspicious package into an NYPD van parked in Times Square hours earlier.
Police were forced to shut a major mid-Manhattan shopping area and traffic circle.
A standoff with the man ended at about 8 a.m. when he was arrested.
The department’s bomb squad investigated the device and deemed it an inert “hoax”, containing a candle, cylindrical object, electrical component and a flashing LED wrapped in a white T-shirt, officials said.
During that timeframe, streets around Columbus Circle were closed, and MTA buses and subways bypassed the area.
The uniformed Sergeant and a Police Officer were in the auto when the suspect threw a explosive-like device in around 11:30 p.m., according to a statement from NYPD.
“He was yelling at me, ‘Boss, what are we doing?’ We’re driving”. They drove to a less crowded area, placed the device on the sidewalk, got out and took cover.
“These two officers are heroes of the NYPD, heroes of New York City”, Bratton said at a Thursday morning news conference.
The bomb squad determined the device was a hoax.
That prompted Emergency Service officers to finally move in and pepper-spray Meneses, 52, and take him into custody, sources said.
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There was no immediate indication that the purported attack by Hector Meneses was terrorism, but the NYPD deployed personnel as if it was a terror attack, the New York Daily News reported. Authorities believe the man is the suspect who threw a fake bomb into a police van in Midtown last night.
