Something's going on in Staten Island, 4 men spotted with what appear to be rifles. Staten, part of NYC with some of the toughest gun control laws in the country. I don't think your average gun enthusiast would be this casual. What is going on here. Paint ball attack as speculated. Or real thing.
Authorities on Staten Island are looking for the cars and people shown in these photos. (NYPD)
A lane on the Outerbridge Crossing was closed this afternoon as the police stopped traffic and search cars looking for “unknown individuals armed with what appear to be assault rifles.” The Outerbridge spans the Arthur Kill and connects Staten Island to Perth Amboy, NJ.
A reliable source inside the anti-terror offices of local authorities has told the Observer that the NYPD has issued a “BOLO-Officer Safety Alert.” (BOLO stands for Be On the Lookout.) The photos, which were taken by a retired NYPD member, show people holding two assault rifles in a parking lot in the Midland Beach neighborhood of Staten Island; one of the people appears to be a woman in a yellow al-amira or shayla. The iconic Verrazano Bridge is visible over her shoulder in the photos. UPDATE, 6:04 p.m.: After a forensic investigation, police are now saying the weapons in the photographs that spurred the large investigation today appear to be paintball guns.
“As part of the ongoing investigation, NYPD 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,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner John J. Miller said in a statement. “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.”
