Friends Face Jail on Weapons Charge After Off-Duty Cop Is Hit by Snowball

Is a snowball a weapon? The Bronx district attorney seems to think so.

Four friends are facing a year in jail on charges of criminal possession of a weapon—as well as attempted assault, menacing and harassment—after an off-duty transit cop was hit by a snowball, the New York Daily News reports.

In the criminal complaint, Officer Adonis Ramirez said the group of four young men hit him in the back with several snowballs before one yelled a threat in Spanish to "jump him" and chased him down the street as he walked toward his car. At that point he said he identified himself as a police officer and called 911, and the officers who arrived arrested the group.

The young men say they were throwing snowballs at each other and hit the officer once by accident. Manuel Rondon, 18, told the Daily News that Ramirez said "you don't know who I am" rather than identifying himself as a cop as he took out his gun and ordered them to the ground before calling the officers who arrested them. Christian Perez, 19, told the Daily News that they took him for a drug dealer.

The young men have a lawyer, and he told the Daily News he's preparing a $10 million false arrest and malicious prosecution suit.

"The DA's office is prosecuting nonsense here," Neil Wollerstein told the Daily News. "You would think that the NYPD would focus on real crimes and not on young men playing in the snow during a nor'easter."