The man, 22, was under scrutiny after what looked like a bomb was found on the trunk of a Tesla at a Queens mall, law enforcement officials said. The 911 call came in to the police around 7:30 a.m. on Monday: A car was stopped in the middle of the circular ramp at the Queens Place Mall parking garage, leaking fumes. A fuel canister with wires attached was sitting on the car’s trunk. Within minutes, New York City police officers and firefighters began evacuating the mall and nearby stores and streets, fearing that the vehicle — a Tesla with Nevada plates that appeared to be stolen — was an improvised car bomb. By 11:30 a.m., the police had determined that the strange collection of cans and wires on the trunk was not an explosive device. Hours later, law enforcement officials said investigators were seeking a 22-year-old man with extremist right-wing views who had been arrested twice last week on charges that he burned posters near Gracie Mansion. (…) Mr. Shenker was well known to the police and federal agents for antagonizing officers and protesters at demonstrations against police brutality last year and for assailing Mayor Bill de Blasio on an Instagram account, one of the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. Mr. Shenker also had his own podcast known as “The Minuteman,” on which he aired his far-right views, the official said. Among other things, he had threatened to conduct a citizen’s arrest of Mr. de Blasio and had said he intended to travel to Georgia to try and disrupt the runoff election Tuesday that will decide control of the United States Senate.
via nytimes: Man With Extremist Right-Wing Views Is in Custody in Bomb Hoax
siehe auch: Massachusetts man, Louis Shenker, who surrendered to New York police after ‘hoax device’ left outside Queens Place Mall was already under investigation by authorities. A Massachusetts man has surrendered to New York police after a “hoax device” was found at Queens Place Mall on Monday. New York police put out an alert that there was a suspicious package at Queens Place Mall on Monday. Police found a “hoax device” attached to the outside of the car and a “husky that was trapped inside the vehicle.”