A shocking illegal fireworks incident during a Fourth of July celebration in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, left families terrified and one woman injured—yet the NYPD failed to act. The blast occurred at Newtown Barge Park around 9:40 p.m. as crowds gathered to enjoy the Macy’s fireworks show. Instead, a reckless group began launching commercial-grade fireworks directly into the crowd.
“Some of those came sailing right towards my head… it detonated like right next to my ear,” said the women, who suffered a perforated eardrum and had her hair set on fire. She described going temporarily deaf and still struggling with balance days later.
Video footage shows panicked parents grabbing their children as fireworks exploded at eye level. One father sustained a burn on his shirt while shielding his kids. The woman said that when she confronted the group, they responded by threatening her and trying to forcibly walk her out of the park.
Despite visible chaos, responding officers allegedly dismissed her concerns. “I was like, you know, here’s the police, they don’t side with me. Here’s all these people that are, you know, intimidating us,” she recalled.
The illegal fireworks offenders continued partying for nearly an hour with no arrests. A police report for reckless endangerment was eventually filed, but no one has been held accountable.
“There just was so much dismissal… it just leads to this feeling that we collectively in New York no longer care about safety,” the woman said.
