NEW YORK — A man charged in connection with a snowball fight in a Manhattan park, during which police officers were hit with packed snow and snowballs, received community service as part of a plea deal that concluded his case last week.

The man, Gusmane Coulibaly, had been charged with obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor, and with harassment, a violation, after the giant snowball fight in Washington Square Park, which erupted after a blizzard this year.

Coulibaly, 28, pleaded guilty to harassment on the condition that he complete 20 hours of community service with the city’s Parks Department, according to a prosecutor’s statements in court. His case can be sealed after one year, said George Vomvolakis, a lawyer for Coulibaly.

Vomvolakis said his client regretted his actions and understood that what he had done “was disrespectful to the police.” The obstructing charge against Coulibaly was dismissed, Vomvolakis said.

The snowball fight and its aftermath angered the city’s police union and proved to be an early test for Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

In a statement, Patrick Hendry, the president of the union, the Police Benevolent Association, called the outcome of Coulibaly’s case “weak justice.”

“By downplaying this attack on police officers, the mayor and D.A. gave this individual a free pass to keep causing chaos on our streets” Hendry said.

Coulibaly’s encounter with law enforcement began in the immediate aftermath of a late February blizzard that covered the city in a heavy blanket of snow, closing schools and roadways. A large snowball fight — organized on social media — broke out in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan.

Police officers were eventually called to the scene, in part because several people had climbed onto the roof of a park building to throw snow and ice onto other revelers below, according to prosecutors. The arriving officers encountered more than 100 people inside the park, prosecutors said, and the situation escalated when people began throwing snowballs at the police.

Videos taken at the time show multiple people throwing snow at the police, prosecutors said. Coulibaly was arrested three days later.

The police initially charged Coulibaly with assaulting a police officer, a felony. But prosecutors declined to pursue the charge, saying that they could not prove that any injuries suffered by the responding officers were directly caused by Coulibaly.

Although Coulibaly’s plea ends his snowball case, it is not the end of his legal troubles. Before his arrest in February, Coulibaly was charged in connection with an attempted robbery in the city’s transit system.

And last month, he was arrested and charged in another robbery case.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Hurubie Meko/Jefferson Siegel
c. 2026 The New York Times Company