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Bogus bomber busted in B'klyn

BY DARYL KHAN AND LINDSAY FABER
Staff Writers

July 13, 2004, 7:20 PM EDT

A man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent created mild alarm in Brooklyn Tuesday when he sat down on a sofa cushion on a busy street wearing what appeared to be a bomb on his chest, police said.

The device was quickly determined to be non-explosive, but the incident had trappings of the real thing: the bag attached to the man's torso contained metal nuts and bolts protruding from the bottom and had a clock on it, police said.

The incident began at 3:36 p.m. on the corner of Court and Atlantic streets, when the man, who had been sitting for several hours, showed a passerby a bag strapped to his chest, police said.

Officers quickly responded and ordered the man to raise his arms, and when the man complied, one officer learned in close, cut the bag off with a knife and threw it under a ballistic blanket. The officers then restrained the man, who had begun praying upon their arrival, witnesses said, and took him into custody.

The bag, which a sergeant described as resembling a fanny pack, was then determined not to be explosive.

People who walked by 139 Court St., where the man was sitting, were not terribly alarmed by his presence — many saying he is a beggar who has repeatedly asked for money over the last week since he started frequenting the neighborhood.

Kumandan Abdul walked to the area minutes before the incident and noticed the man but didn't consider anything suspicious about him.

"I saw him this afternoon. He was sitting out there on the sofa cushion with junk all around him. I thought he was a beggar so I just ignored him," Abdul said. "The next thing you know the bomb squad was here."

At the New Mexicali restaurant, which is next door to where the man was sitting, waiter Alfredo Aragon, 22, said he began to see the man around the area a week ago.

"He didn't have all of his marbles up here," Aragon said, pointing to his head. Recently, someone offered the man a dollar and the man angrily threw it back, Aragon said.

Aragon said he tried to walk out of the restaurant to see what was happening but the police ordered him inside. Police also closed off several blocks.

Salim Tahtaouny, who works and lives nearby, said he was worried the local Arab community's reputation would suffer because of the incident.

"This is going to make us look more suspicious than we already are now," Tahtaouny said. "Thank God no one got hurt."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-bomb0714,0,6188010.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines