NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The NYPD released a photo Friday of a man suspected of stealing a U.S. flag from a woman and setting it on fire during a protest earlier this week at a World War I memorial in Central Park.
The incident happened as pro-Palestinian protesters marched in the area on Monday and attempted to disrupt the annual Met Gala.
A 48-year-old woman, possibly a counter-protester, had wrapped herself in the U.S. flag at East 75th Street and Park Avenue around 6:30 p.m. when a man snatched the flag from her, police said.
He then set the flag ablaze in front of the 107th Infantry Memorial, which honors World War I soldiers, near East 67th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Videos shared on social media shows the flag burning on the ground at the base of the monument.
No injuries were reported, police said.
A pro-Palestine protestor writes Gaza on a memoriam near Central Park during a march on the outskirts of the Met Gala on May 6, 2024 in New York City.Alex Kent/Getty Images
Hundreds of protesters calling for an end to the Israel-Gaza war marched on the Upper East Side and into Central Park on Monday evening as the star-studded Met Gala was taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The NYPD has been releasing images all week of suspects wanted for vandalizing the monument, which was scrawled with graffiti.
On Thursday, police said they had arrested a 16-year-old boy on felony criminal mischief charges and misdemeanor graffiti charges for spray-painting the General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument at East 59th Street and Fifth Avenue.
At a Tuesday press conference about the vandalism, Mayor Eric Adams told reporters, "What is bitter in its irony is that all who sacrificed and all who died would sacrifice and die again in order to protect the rights and freedoms of the very people who burned the flag and vandalized this monument yesterday evening."
