Hoboken Cops Gave Aid During NYC Subway Bombing: Chief

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken’s police chief offered a public “thank you” to the local officers and emergency response units who lent aid at the city’s PATH and ferry areas to help protect bystanders during an alleged terrorist attack inside a busy Midtown subway station Monday morning.

“Thank you to our Hoboken Police Department, ESU, traffic and emergency response units who rapidly went into target hardening operations at our PATH and Ferry areas this morning,” Ferrante wrote Monday.

The Hoboken Police Chief continued:

“Our @HobokenPD Emergency Service Unit are out in force at our transportation HUB, keeping the area safe and working with @PAPD911 and @NJTRANSIT Police in a coordinated target hardening effort.”

Port Authority officials offered particular thanks to four of the agency’s officers: Jack Collins, Anthony Manfredini, Drew Preston and Sean Gallagher.

According to the Port Authority, the four officers entered “a smoke and debris-filled subway passageway, struggled with the suspect and denied him the ability to cause further chaos and destruction.”

The suspect, Akayed Ullah, detonated an "improvised, low-tech explosive device," similar to a pipe bomb, at 7:20 a.m. as he walked in a pedestrian tunnel underneath 42nd Street, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said. Ullah was heading from the Eighth Avenue subway platforms toward the Times Square station at Seventh Avenue, O'Neill said.

From his hospital bed, Ullah told investigators he was inspired by ISIS, though officials do not believe he had any direct connection to the group, law enforcement sources said

• See related article: NYC Port Authority Terror Attacker Linked To ISIS, Officials Say
• See related article: Massive NJ Traffic Delays After Times Square Explosion

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Photo via Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante, Twitter

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