Another package with a suspected pipe bomb was found early Thursday, this one at the offices above actor Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Grill in New York City, according to the city’s police department.
Police removed the suspected explosives, which had been mailed to the address, and no one was injured. The restaurant opened as usual at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, said a staff member reached on the phone.
The package was similar to eight others sent to CNN’s New York offices, prominent Democratic elected officials, former president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
"A suspicious package was received. We called the police. They took it out and went through all safety procedures," according to a statement from Tribeca Enterprises and the affiliated Tribeca Film Center. "It was addressed to Robert De Niro and is similar packaging to the others. It is an open investigation. Everyone is safe and the building is open."
A spokesperson said they could not comment further because of the police investigation.
De Niro co-owns Tribeca Grill, which opened in 1990, at 375 Greenwich St. in Lower Manhattan with Drew Nieporent, actor Lou Diamond Phillips and others.
Tracy Nieporent, director of marketing and partner at the grill's operating company, Myriad Restaurant Group, said in an email: "We’re resilient at Tribeca Grill, which means that we’re going to continue to nurture our guests and give them a little mini-vacation from the harshness of the world."
The package, discovered in the seventh-floor offices at 4:45 a.m. Thursday had mailing labels and a return address of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) that resembled the suspected pipe bombs found Wednesday.
ABC News correspondent Aaron Katersky posted a photo of the package on Twitter Thursday morning, noting it “bears all the similar markings” of the other suspicious packages.
This is the suspicious package sent to Robert De Niro at his production company in Tribeca. It bears all the similar markings of previous packages pic.twitter.com/JPQiMiOikK
— Aaron Katersky (@AaronKatersky) October 25, 2018
James O’Neill, New York Police Department commissioner, said on Twitter that authorities sent the package to a secure facility in the Bronx.
The most highly-trained experts in the world are investigating today’s suspicious package in #TriBeCa — & the item is now en route to a secure facility in the #Bronx. Together with our partners @NewYorkFBI, @ATFNewYork, @nyspolice & more, @NYPDCT WILL find whoever is responsible. https://t.co/4WcCwz4dME
— Commissioner O'Neill (@NYPDONeill) October 25, 2018
De Niro, the star of such movies as “Raging Bull” and the “Meet the Parents” series, has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, using his prominent Tony Awards appearance earlier this year to lambaste him. De Niro also said he had barred Trump from the Nobu restaurant chain, which he also co-owns.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless
