NEW YORK (AP) — A social media content creator was arrested Thursday after New York City police said he was one of a number of people who pelted officers with snow and ice during a massive snowball fight in Washington Square Park this week.
Gusmane Coulibaly, 27, was charged with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a non-criminal violation.
He appeared in handcuffs and wearing an olive-green sweat suit during his arraignment Thursday evening in Manhattan criminal court. He wasn't asked to enter a plea, and was released, pending his next court date on April 9.
Coulibaly didn't speaking during the brief hearing, which was attended by at least a dozen uniformed police officers and police union officials. But George Vomvolakis, his attorney, said the “circumstances surrounding his arrest have been politicized.”
He argued that prosecutors would have to prove Coulibaly intended to interfere with police officers’ duties in order to win a conviction on the obstructing governmental administration charge.
“This is a glorified summons matter, in my opinion," Vomvolakis said in court. "I understand it’s disrespectful to throw snowballs at police.”
Monday’s snowball fight, which appeared to be organized by social media content producers, caused a chaotic scene as a large crowd amassed at the popular park to wing snowballs at each other during a winter storm.
Prosecutors said in court that officers arrived at the park after a 911 call about a disorderly group, including people climbing on a roof.
Video from the incident also shows officers shoved at least two people to the ground as they paced a walkway in the park while getting hit from all directions by snowballs.
The department has said multiple officers were hit in the face with snowballs, and a spokesperson for the union has said two police officers were treated at a nearby hospital for face, head and neck injuries.
Patrick Hendry, the police union president, said he was disappointed that prosecutors didn’t charge Coulibaly with assaulting an officer — the felony offense police originally arrested him on.
Assistant District Attorney Victoria Notaro said prosecutors determined Coulibaly was involved in the frozen fracas, but couldn’t prove that his snowball slinging caused the officers’ injuries.
Notaro said video showed Coulibaly throwing a snowball that struck the left side of an officer’s face but did not find evidence showing that the officer’s injuries were caused “directly by this defendant’s conduct.”
The officer sustained injuries including redness, tenderness and pain to his eye, head and neck, Notaro said.
“We will continue to investigate,” she added.
Vomvolakis said Coulibaly is a content creator who makes “elaborate videos” including a recent one in which he approached a stranger in a Bronx subway, acted as if he knew him and said he was owed money.
That interaction got Coulibaly arrested for attempted robbery — a charge that Vomvolakis said he was confident would be dismissed.
Coulibaly has hundreds of thousands of followers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other social media platforms, where he posts under the moniker Diaper Man.
The snowball fight has also highlighted the starkly differing views of the mayor and his police commissioner, who had originally been appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, played down the fracas as a “snowball fight that got out of hand” and suggested he did not think criminal charges were warranted.
The city's police department has pursued the matter, releasing images of four people it said it was searching for. Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, has called the snowball fight “disgraceful” and “criminal.”
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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.