A federal agent assigned to help protect dignitaries at the United Nations General Assembly was arrested Thursday after a run-in at a trendy Times Square hotel.
Police officers were dispatched at about 6 a.m. to the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street in response to a 911 call reporting that a drunken guest had pulled a pistol on a security guard. The guard had escorted the man to his room and demanded to see some identification.
The New York Police Department confirmed the officers arrested the man on weapons, reckless endangerment and menacing charges, but referred questions to U.S. Homeland Security officials in Washington.
Officials there said that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on assignment in New York had been accused of wrongdoing and placed on leave. But they withheld the agent's name and gave no further details.
The agent "had recently finished a temporary assignment assisting the U.S. Secret Service on a security detail during the United Nations General Assembly in New York," the officials said in a statement. "ICE takes all allegations of employee misconduct very seriously and will respond appropriately based on the investigative findings."
Opened in 1928, the Paramount was once part of the empire of trendsetting boutique hotelier Ian Schrager. A hotel manager declined comment on Thursday.
