The event was billed as a massive snowball fight, a moment of unrestrained revelry in a beloved New York park, as the first blizzard in a decade beared down on the city.
“NYC TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PULL UP,” the organizers, the social media content producers known as Sidetalk, wrote in a post announcing the gathering, which would take place at Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan.
As advertised, by 3 p.m., dozens of people, many freed of school and work, had descended on the park to take part in the merrymaking. Videos show a sea of people in winter hats and puffer jackets lobbing snowballs in wide arcs, a snow-dusted Washington Arch behind them.
But what began as a lighthearted frolic in one of the city’s most popular parks soon turned chaotic when several police officers, called to control the crowd, walked in and were pelted with snowballs.
Hours later, Jessica Tisch, the head of the Police Department, said the agency was investigating the episode after videos showed the officers being hit with snow.
“The N.Y.P.D. is aware of certain videos taken earlier today in Washington Square Park showing individuals attacking cops,” Commissioner Tisch wrote in a post on X on Monday. She called the behavior “disgraceful” and “criminal.”
The police on Tuesday said that several officers had been struck by the snowballs at close range, causing injuries to their heads, necks and faces. Two officers had been taken to Northwell Greenwich Village Hospital after the fight. Detectives on Tuesday were trying to identify the people who threw the snowballs, the police said. There have been no arrests so far.
The episode seemed poised to set off a game of political shot-taking on Tuesday, as former New York politicians and critics of Mayor Zohran Mamdani took to social media to condemn what they saw as aggressive behavior toward the police.
By Tuesday morning, the mayor himself had weighed in.
“Officers, like all city workers, have been out in a historic blizzard, keeping New Yorkers safe and cars moving. Treat them with respect,” Mr. Mamdani wrote in a post on X. In an apparent attempt to lighten the discourse, he added: “If anyone’s catching a snowball, it’s me.”
Videos of the event posted on social media show the mood shifting as officers walk through the park and interact with the crowd.
One recording published by FreedomNews.TV, a breaking news outlet, shows four police officers walking toward a park exit while snowballs fly at them from behind and several people film them from the sidelines.
One of the officers appears to chuckle, but as the group walks on, larger balls of snow hit them on the head and neck. The officers then turn back, walking deeper into a crowd of people before ultimately moving to leave the park once again. Some shouting ensues as snowballs continue to fly at them.
In another video posted on X, officers walking near the park’s bathrooms appear to first get caught in the crossfire of the snowball fight. Soon, however, several people begin throwing large amounts of snow at them, coating their uniforms in white. Two officers then hustle toward the restrooms, pushing two people in their path into snowbanks as they go. A few seconds later, a person smashes a snowball directly onto the back of an officer’s neck.
The group of officers appears to largely not engage in the snowball fight and eventually retreat from the park.
On Tuesday, the police said that the officers had been dispatched to the event after receiving a 911 call about a disorderly group in the park. When they arrived, they saw a large crowd of people throwing snowballs and multiple officers were soon struck in the face by the snow, the police said.
Emergency medical workers later took the two injured officers to the hospital in stable condition, the police said.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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