Staten Island, NY – New York City police were alerted and a Coast Guard station was locked down briefly after a photo surfaced of people carrying what appeared to be assault rifles on Staten Island. But authorities say there appears to be no threat, and the weapons may have been paintball guns.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Police issued an alert to officers after a retired colleague photographed the people Friday in a parking lot near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Officers searched for two vehicles seen in the photos. Patrol cars were stationed near the bridge amid heightened security after four Marines were shot dead Thursday in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Access to the Coast Guard station near the bridge returned to normal around 3 p.m. A spokesman, Petty Officer Iannazzo Simmons, says police determined the unconfirmed threat was “no longer significant.”
In an updated press release the NYPD said that firearms experts conducted a forensic examination of the photographs. The preliminary opinion of these experts was that the weapons in the pictures strongly resemble replicas of firearms used in “paintball” games.
Interviews conducted by NYPD and FBI investigators in New Jersey have revealed that the registered owner of one of the vehicles indicated that he was planning to go paintball shooting with friends today. The investigation is continuing.” Police said.
two SUV’s?!!?!? One is a silver Nissan Quest and the other is a maroon (or similar color) Scion XB. hopefully its just paintball guns or toys.
Let’s not jump to conclusions. Why would any ordinary Muslim looking people with assault rifles arouse suspicions? After all we still don’t know what motivated the Kuwaiti born “all American, fun loving” young man Mohamed Abdul Aziz to shoot up four marines. in Chattanooga .
Political Correctness is not just insane, it’s going to bury this nation r”l.
Why didn’t the retired cop call other police and if they have the plate numbers that should get them some sense of the who they are and where they live the cars have to be registered to some address
Just wondering Weren’t there a couple of paintball attacks against Jews in Staten Island recently? Oh come on be quiet don’t talk about that
Did NYPD interview them? Did they ask about paintball attacks? Why do they have these guns?