Two Brooklyn residents who graduated from some of America’s top universities are in considerable trouble for hurling a molotov cocktail at an NYPD vehicle.
Colinford Mattis, 32, and Urooj Rahman, 31, of Brooklyn, are facing charges of being in possession of explosive device components after human rights activist and Fordham Law School grad, Urooj Rahman allegedly tossed a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD vehicle before fleeing with Princeton and NYU Law School grad Colinford Mattis.
Colinford MattisAccording to the New York Post – Colinford Mattis, 32, was allegedly behind the wheel of a tan minivan as his passenger, fellow attorney Urooj Rahman, allegedly hurled the incendiary at an empty NYPD vehicle outside the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Fort Greene early Saturday.
Mattis, a graduate of Princeton University and New York University law school, is an associate at corporate Manhattan firm Pryor Cashman.
He was furloughed in April amid the coronavirus crisis, his employer confirmed.
“As we confront critical issues around historic and ongoing racism and inequity in our society, I am saddened to see this young man allegedly involved in the worst kind of reaction to our shared outrage over what had occurred,” managing partner Ron Shechtman said in a statement to The Post.
Urooj Rahman, 31, meanwhile, is also registered as an attorney in New York state, who was admitted to the bar in June 2019 after graduating from Fordham University School of Law. It was not immediately clear on Sunday whether she was affiliated with any law firm.
Fordham Law School has this glowing write-up for human rights activist, Urooj Rahman:
Urooj Rahman ’15 worked with the Refugee Solidarity Network (RSN) and Refugee Rights Turkey (RTT), which, through their legal work, assist and empower refugees fleeing Turkey. Urooj provided direct services to asylum-seekers at the Center for Refugee Rights in Istanbul. As a foreign lawyer in Turkey, she lent her legal assistance mostly to non-Syrians going through the UNHCR refugee status determination procedure. She also served several months in New York with RSN, using her direct service experience to inform her contribution to international advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives.
NBC New York – The complaint reads, “during the arrest, officers observed in plain view several precursor items to build a Molotov cocktail, including a lighter, a bottle filled with toilet paper and a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank in the rear of the vehicle.”
U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue says, “no rational human being can ever believe that hurling firebombs at police officers and vehicles is justified.”
