The Manhattan District Attorney's Office refused to pursue an assault on a police officer charge against 27-year-old Gusmane Coulibaly, the man arrested for his alleged role in the now-infamous Washington Square Park snowball melee that left an NYPD officer injured. The remaining charges were downgraded. Coulibaly walked out on supervised release.
Let that sit for a moment. A police officer took a projectile to the face, suffered redness, tenderness, and pain near his eye, went out on sick leave, and the DA's office decided the whole thing wasn't worth an assault charge.
Coulibaly was originally charged with assault on a police officer, obstruction of governmental administration, and disorderly conduct. By the time his Thursday evening arraignment concluded, the assault charge had vanished. The obstruction was downgraded to a second-degree violation, and the remaining charge was reduced to harassment, according to a criminal complaint.
According to The NY Post, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Victoria Notaro explained the retreat by telling the court it was difficult to prove "that the injury was obtained directly from the defendant." That's the rationale: when a mob swarms police officers, it becomes conveniently hard to pin any single blow on any single attacker, so everyone skates.
Coulibaly's private attorney, George Vomvolakis, dismissed the proceedings as a "glorified summons" and accused the NYPD of taking out its frustrations with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his client. He claimed Coulibaly "had no idea what the intent was." Even Judge Michelle Weber, while granting supervised release, acknowledged that Coulibaly's involvement "showed a complete lack of judgment."
Coulibaly himself said nothing in court. He is due back on April 9 for the snowball charges and, separately, on March 15 for an alleged straphanger shakedown.
One victimized officer, identified only as "PO Johnson," suffered redness, tenderness, and pain to the left side of his face near his eye. He remains out on sick leave. Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, said Johnson is "on the mend."
Hendry was considerably less diplomatic about the DA's decision. He told reporters this was not recreation. It was, in his words:
"This was a grown adult that was here. Our police officers went to this location, on the rooftop, for a disorderly group, came down, and they were surrounded by hundreds of individuals who then attacked all police officers."
Hendry claimed the suspects knowingly packed the snow with ice and rocks. He called the incident "an attack on the uniform these police officers wear every day." And he posed the questions that the DA's office apparently didn't want to answer:
"So why wasn't assault charged? Why was harassment charged? Why do they feel that that didn't cause an injury to a police officer, which he clearly, clearly has an injury below his eye?"
Good questions. The silence from the DA's office is its own kind of answer.
None of this happens in a vacuum. Mayor Zohran Mamdani painted his own narrative after the incident, contending it was just "kids doing snowballs." Hendry rejected that characterization of a "playful snowball fight" outright.
And this is the pattern now taking shape in Manhattan. The mayor minimizes violence against officers. The DA's office follows his lead by quietly shedding the serious charges before they ever reach a jury. Defense attorneys call the result a "glorified summons." And the officer who caught ice and rocks to the face gets a sick leave form and a shrug.
Vomvolakis repeatedly claimed Coulibaly is 22 years old, despite records indicating he is 27. A small detail, perhaps, but instructive. Every piece of this story gets softened, shaved down, made to look less serious than it is. The defendant gets younger. The snowballs get lighter. The mob becomes kids at play. The assault becomes harassment.
Three suspects from the incident remain at large. Based on how the DA handled the one they actually caught, there isn't much incentive for them to turn themselves in.
The message from Manhattan's power structure is now unmistakable. If a mob surrounds you, pelts you with projectiles packed with ice and rocks, and injures your face, the system will:
This is what demoralization looks like in policy form. Not a single loud declaration that police don't matter, but a quiet, procedural erosion of consequences for attacking them. Every charge downgraded is a signal. Every dropped count tells the next mob what it can get away with.
PO Johnson is home recovering from an injury to his face. Gusmane Coulibaly is free. And the next time a crowd decides to surround officers in a city park, everyone involved will remember how this one ended.
