Potential explosive device found outside New York City police station house

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    NEW YORK, NY (WCBS) — A potential explosive device was found outside a New York City police station house Wednesday afternoon.

Police said two uniformed officers assigned to station house security at the 25th Precinct on 119th Street in East Harlem were approached by a vehicle just before noon.

According to police, the driver stated the passenger in the vehicle had hit him in the back of the head with a machete. The driver told the officers where the machete was inside the vehicle and indicated there was also an explosive device inside the vehicle.

Police said the officers immediately took the passenger into custody.

Both the machete and the potential explosive device were located and secured. The police department’s Emergency Service Unit and Bomb Squad were called to investigate.

Mark Torre, commanding officer of the Bomb Squad, described the device as “a potential viable improvised explosive device.”

“It will be definitively described as either capable of functioning as designed, capable of exploding, or was it something made to look like a bomb but is it really a bomb?” Torre said.

Investigators are still working to determine if the device is actually functional.

“If it was able to function as designed, what we would say in my parlance is it was capable of causing death or serious physical injury to anyone in proximity and property damage. It’s just impossible to determine the degree,” Torre said.

Police sources said the suspect has prior arrests related to domestic violence.

CBS New York crews saw NYPD officials in the lobby of what’s believed to be the suspect’s apartment building Wednesday evening.

Police don’t believe cops were a target.

“We don’t have any reason to believe he was headed anywhere specifically, and because of some other information we have, he seems to be rambling on about incoherent ideas and paranoias and things like that … It looks like it might have been something specifically between him and [the driver] at this time, though the investigation’s ongoing,” NYPD Counterterrorism Deputy Chief Jason Huerta said.

Police said the suspect had “potential emotional issues.”

“We take all of these things very seriously. Given what you see around the country, whether it’s somebody that’s mentally disturbed or whether this is a targeted incident, we treat it the same. We have a lot of work to do still, but make no mistake about it, finding a device like this … it is serious. This is a serious incident,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard said.

Police sources said the suspect is now facing charges for assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

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