New video shows former soldier’s firebomb attack at 26 Federal Plaza

Newly released surveillance video showed Andrew Arrabaca firing fireworks and a pellet gun before a fireball erupted outside 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, while pedestrians kept moving past the building. The footage, released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, offered the clearest view yet of the attack and the unsettling calm on a city street that seemed to absorb it in real time.

Federal prosecutors said Arrabaca, 43, a former U.S. Army soldier, was jailed without bail after being charged with arson. Investigators believe he plotted the attack for months and had considered other New York City targets before allegedly starting a sidewalk fire, igniting fireworks and firing the pellet gun outside the federal complex.

The building at 26 Federal Plaza has been described as housing immigration court proceedings and Department of Homeland Security and ICE-related offices, placing it at the center of federal enforcement activity in Manhattan. That made the scene more than a bizarre street-side blaze: it was an attack at a site tied to immigration proceedings, security screening and other daily federal business in one of the city’s busiest districts.

No one was seriously injured. FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the person was in custody and that two minor injuries had been reported. One description of Arrabaca said he had been a mechanic on Patriot missile systems, adding to the military background that investigators are now weighing as they examine how the attack was planned and carried out.

The video’s most jarring detail was not only the fire itself but the way the block kept moving around it. The footage captured a version of New York that has learned to keep going through sirens, smoke and disruption, even as a federal building in Lower Manhattan briefly became a blast site. The case now moves through the criminal justice system as investigators continue sorting out motive, preparation and whether anyone else knew about the plan.