An 18-year-old Manhattan man was charged with harassment and obstruction of governmental administration Wednesday in the cowardly snowball-pelting blitz on NYPD cops at Washington Square Park, police said.
Eric Wilson, Jr., who turned himself in to cops, is the second frosty fiend charged in the Feb. 23 caught-on-video attack on New York’s Finest, which sent two officers to the hospital with minor injuries.
The accused troublemaker threw at least one snowball that hit an NYPD cop in the chest, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Cal Mullan said during Wilson’s arraignment Wednesday night, which was attended by around a dozen police officers.
But because of the defendant’s age and lack of criminal history, prosecutors agreed that Wilson should be released from custody as the case moves through the legal system.
“I did nothing wrong, I’m just trying to get outta here,” he told reporters as he walked out of court.
Wilson’s mother, Makeba Reece, 37, said her son had never been in trouble before the blizzard brouhaha.
“If I were an officer I would have joined in myself,” she argued. “It’s ridiculous. If you’re going to arrest one, you should arrest everyone there.”
Hundreds of winter revelers were hurling snowballs when cops were called to the park around 4 p.m. — only to become the target of the icy projectiles, video footage from the scene shows.
Follow The Post’s latest coverage of the brazen snowball attack on the NYPD — and Mamdani’s refusal to condemn it
Gusmane Coulibaly, a 27-year-old self-proclaimed influencer who goes by the name “Diaperman” online, was the first thug busted in the incident, but caught a break when Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg declined to prosecute on the most serious charge of assault.
That left Coulibaly — who is also charged in an unrelated attempted robbery case — facing slap-on-the-wrist charges of harassment and obstruction of governmental administration in the snowball incident, the same charges now lodged against Wilson by cops on Wednesday.
One of the injured cops, identified as “PO Johnson,” suffered redness, tenderness and pain to the left side of his face near his eye, but it was difficult to prove “that the injury was obtained directly from the defendant,” Manhattan prosecutors said in court after Coulibaly’s bust.
NYPD PBA President Patrick Hendry said Wednesday the second arrest sends an “important message.”
“These shameful attacks on our police officers last week were serious. It wasn’t a game. It didn’t end when the snow melted,” he said.
“This was a vicious attack on our police officers. It had consequences on them. They reviewed injuries and those responsible need to face consequences in this case.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani came under fire following the snowball attack, calling it nothing more than “kids doing snowballs” — which ticked off the city’s police union.
“We know the mayor and others just want to move on, they want it to go away, they want to sweep it under the rug,” Hendry added.
“But that can’t happen. All those who are responsible for attacking our police officers and injuring our police offices need to be held accountable because if they’re not, it sends a horrible message.”
Additional reporting by David Propper
