NYC police arrest man after officers were pelted during a snowball fight

A 27-year-old man has been arrested after New York City police said officers were hurt when they were pelted with snow and ice during a massive snowball fight in Washington Square Park this week
In this photo taken from video, people throw and duck snowballs during a snowball fight at Washington Square Park, Monday, February. 23, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/David R. Martin)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

In this photo taken from video, people throw and duck snowballs during a snowball fight at Washington Square Park, Monday, February. 23, 2026 in New York. (AP Photo/David R. Martin)

NEW YORK (AP) — A 27-year-old man was arrested Thursday after New York City police said officers were hurt when they were pelted with snow and ice during a massive snowball fight in Washington Square Park this week.

The man, Gusmane Coulibaly, has been charged with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a non-criminal violation, according to online court records. Police had arrested Coulibaly on a charge of assaulting a police officer, a felony, but prosecutors declined to pursue that.

He was expected to appear in court Thursday evening.

The arrest came after Monday's snowball fight, which appeared to be organized by social media content producers, caused a chaotic scene as a large crowd amassed at the popular park to wing snowballs at each other during a winter storm.

Police said officers arrived at the park after a 911 call about a disorderly group there. A video shows two officers getting bombarded by snowballs as a rowdy crowd yells and films with their phones. The officers shoved at least two people to the ground as they paced a walkway in the park while getting hit from all directions by snowballs.

The department said multiple officers were hit in the face with snowballs, and a spokesperson for the union has said two police officers were treated at a nearby hospital for face, head and neck injuries.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, played down the fracas as a “snowball fight that got out of hand” and suggested he did not think criminal charges were warranted.

The city's police department has pursued the matter, releasing images of four people it said it was searching for. Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, has called the snowball fight “disgraceful” and “criminal.”