Early Friday evening, a man emerged from a sidewalk grate, threw two road flares into an upscale Italian restaurant in the West Village and disappeared back underground. No arrests have been made.
“I saw him come out — it was like Ninja Turtles,” said one witness about the mysterious young man who was reportedly “wearing an American flag shirt and cap,” who makes people think of ISIS. No one knows why he did it. Most stories have highlighted that the restaurant attracts an upper class clientele such as the actress Rose McGowan, who was dining at the time. The implication that it’s a class-motivated attack is pure speculation.
Some witnesses expressed concerns over the man’s easy access to the subway system. Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent tells ABC News, “It’s clearly a wake-up call,” adding “When you get into a city the size of New York or even just the one borough of Manhattan, you literally cannot cover every single avenue. You do the best you can and try to learn from every situation and figure out where you have a vulnerability.”
All police have announced is that they’re searching for “a white male approximately 20 years old with blond wavy hair.” You can watch the video above. It’s only 20 seconds long, but, for a split moment, you can see him sneaking.
