Police arrested an Ivy League-educated attorney for allegedly being involved in throwing a Molotov cocktail at a marked New York Police Department vehicle during weekend protests over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.
Police said Sunday that Colinford Mattis, 32, was allegedly behind the wheel of a minivan when his passenger, fellow attorney Urooj Rahman, allegedly threw the device at the unoccupied NYPD vehicle outside the 88th Precinct station house early Saturday, reports The New York Post.
Mattis graduated from Princeton University and New York University School of Law, and is an associate of Pryor Cashman in Manhattan. His employer confirmed he was furloughed in April during the coronavirus crisis.
Managing partner Ron Shechtman said in a statement to The Post that "as we confront critical issues around historic and ongoing racism and inequity in our society, I am saddened to see this young man allegedly involved in the worst kind of reaction to our shared outrage over what had occurred."
Pryor Cashman said his employment will be reviewed as further information is obtained.
He is also a member of Brooklyn Community Board 5 in East New York.
Rahman, 31, was admitted to the bar in June 2019 after she graduated from Fordham University School of Law. It was not clear Sunday if she was affiliated with a law firm, or how she and Mattis know each other.
According to a photo obtained Sunday by The New York Daily News, a woman, identified as Rahman, is shown holding a Bud Light bottle that was filled with gasoline and stuffed with a rag to make the Molotov cocktail. Law enforcement officials said the device did not ignite.
Both attorneys are facing federal charges of causing damage by fire and explosives to a police vehicle and are expected to be arraigned Monday. They each face up to 20 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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