Protester questioned after threatening to burn down NYC Diamond District

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A New York City protester identifying himself as “Ace Burns” was taken into custody Saturday after he said during a live interview on Fox News that he planned to set fire to Manhattan’s Diamond District.
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A New York City protester identifying himself as “Ace Burns” was taken into custody Saturday after he said during a live interview on Fox News that he planned to set fire to Manhattan’s Diamond District.

The man was stopped for an on-camera interview outside the Barclays Center Saturday as demonstrations kicked off over the police killing of George Floyd.

” Gasoline, thanks to Trump, is awfully cheap,” he told Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.

“Today, I’m giving a demonstration from Barclay’s Center at 6 p.m. to City Hall, and that’s the first stop — and we’re hoping [Mayor] De Blasio and [Gov.] Cuomo come out and talk to us and give the youth some direction,” he told the reporter.

“But if they don’t, then [the] next stop is the Diamond District,” he said, referring to a block on Manhattan’s 47th Street known for jewelry shops. “And gasoline, thanks to Trump, is awfully cheap. So we’re giving them a chance right now to do the right thing.”

The NYPD announced shortly after 9 p.m. on Twitter that the man was taken in for questioning. The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed, police said.

“Earlier tonight, a man wearing this mask threatened, in a live @FoxNews interview, to burn Manhattan’s diamond district down,” the department tweeted. “Within hours, we identified the man & took him in to be interviewed.”