Queens: NYPD Thwarts Potential Terror Attack Blocks From LaGuardia Airport

By FrumNews.com

The NYPD thwarted a potential terror attack after its officers arrested a 29-year-old man armed with a cache of weapons and extremist materials in Queens, New York, early Wednesday morning.

According to police, the man’s vehicle, a Ford Explorer with an obscured license plate, was pulled over around 1:30 AM at 23rd Avenue and 86th Street in East Elmhurst, just blocks from LaGuardia Airport.

NYPD Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey said that, upon searching the car, officers discovered an arsenal of weapons in the car, including a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, ammunition, knives, a machete, a stun gun, whip, a body armor vest with an NYPD patch inside it, an MTA vest and a baton with writing on it that read “Left Me No Choice.”

Chief Maddrey said, “Members of this department make gun arrests, weapons arrests, arrests for knives every day, but an arrest of this magnitude, the amount of ammunition, NYPD paraphernalia in the car was significant, and we wanted to make sure we updated the community and the press.”

Maddrey said police are actively investigating and working to determine a motive. He added they are also looking into whether the suspect planned an attack. “We’re still confirming that, that’s all part of the investigation.”

“Given what was in there, something very bad was potentially averted,” one officer told The New York Post. “The intent is still under investigation. The sum of the parts had the potential for something awful.”

The office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the suspect was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and other crimes after he was stopped by police in East Elmhurst for having a covering over his license plate.

DA Katz said: “We must protect our city. When a person is pulled over and possesses a loaded semi-automatic gun, more than 170 total rounds of ammunition, multiple weapons, body armor, an NYPD patch and an MTA vest, just a few blocks from the airport, we are very concerned. This investigation is ongoing and I thank the NYPD for apprehending the defendant on a routine traffic stop before anything else happened.”