At 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday ― one day after a major American political party officially picked a man who has called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. to be its presidential nominee ― a man in a gold SUV tossed an electric device through the window of a marked New York City Police Department van parked in Manhattan’s Times Square.
The device made a clicking sound and had a flashing red light.
“I’m sitting there and we had just gotten in the van, we were talking and next thing I know, something hits my hand,” NYPD Officer Peter Cybulski later recalled. “I look at it, and I’m like, ‘Boss, it’s a bomb.’”
Cybulski’s boss, Sgt. Hameed Armani, was sitting in the driver’s seat and thought both men were about to die. But Armani ― a Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan ― immediately became concerned about the safety of the throngs of people in Times Square.
“We both look at each other,” Armani said when he recounted the incident later. “I was like, ‘We’re going to go, but I’m not going to have anybody else go with us.’”
The pair decided to keep the device in the van and drive to a less crowded area. Armani said they both “said our prayers” while driving.
This could be the end, they thought.
“One thing that crossed my mind really quick was my daughter,” Armani said. “She’s 12 years old, she watches TV now, she understands the news, so every time I leave home, she says, ‘Dad, promise you’re gonna come home.’”
About a block away, Cybulski and Armani found an area with fewer people. They removed the item from their van and placed it on the sidewalk.
The police department later determined that the the device was not a bomb. Everyone was safe.
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton called Cybulski and Armani “heroes of this department, heroes of this city” during a press conference on Thursday.
“They put their own lives at risk so that they could save potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Times Square,” Bratton said.
In a Facebook post that same day, the NYPD Muslim Officers Society wrote, “Can you please inform Donald J. Trump and others against #Immigrants &#Muslims about this #Heroic #NYPD officer of #Muslim #Afghan roots (our proud member) and his partner.”
According to the group’s website, Armani is among nearly 1,000 members of the NYPD Muslim Officers Society, some of whom are immigrants like him.
Similarly, there are an estimated 6,000 Muslims serving in the U.S. military, including many immigrants. Take Hanif Sanghi, for example. Sanghi joined the U.S. Army after emigrating from Pakistan. He served in combat in Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star. Or consider the story of Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. Born in New Jersey to Muslim immigrant parents, Khan joined the Army and was killed in Iraq in 2007.
The stories of these immigrants and their families offer a sharp rebuke to Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S., as well as to those who have called for a ban on Syrian refugees coming to their states.
With those kind of bans, what other heroes might the U.S. miss out on?
Armani told reporters Thursday that he immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan so his daughter could have a better life, and so that he could be a police officer.
He has been a police officer for 10 years.
Police identified the man believed to have thrown the device into the police van as 52-year-old Hector Meneses. He was arrested Thursday after a long standoff in Columbus Circle, during which Meneses threatened to blow himself up. No explosives were found in his car.
Meneses faces charges that include placing a false bomb, making a terroristic threat and criminal possession of a weapon.