Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Seth Wenig/PA Images
St Patrick's

Man arrested after walking into New York cathedral with gasoline and lighters

Police arrested the man last night.

A MAN HAS been arrested after entering St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters.

Police arrested the man last night, just days after a fire badly damaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy commissioner John Miller said the arrested man claimed he was taking a shortcut through the cathedral after his car ran out of fuel, but his answers were “inconsistent and evasive”. 

“We don’t know what his mindset was, what his motive was,” Miller told a press conference on the steps of the cathedral, a neo-Gothic structure in the heart of Manhattan.

The man was confronted by a cathedral security officer and was told he cannot go inside carrying those items, according to the police.

“At that point, some gasoline apparently spills out onto the floor as he’s turned around,” Miller said.

After an alarm was raised, officers from the NYPD’s counter-terrorism bureau caught up to the man and arrested him after questioning.

“His basic story was he was cutting through the cathedral… that his car had run out of gas,” Miller said.

“We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas and at that point he was taken into custody.”

Miller said the 37-year-old suspect was “known to police,” who are currently looking into his background.

Construction first started on St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1850s and it was completed in 1878. Extensions have been added over the years and a major restoration was completed in 2015.