New York firefighter arrested on assault charges

After many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, one firefighter was arrested on assault charges after allegedly attacking an immigrant worker.

Firefighter Edward Dailey was arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of criminal mischief and felony second-degree assault, Police Sgt. Kevin Farrell said. It had not yet been determined whether the charges would be upgraded to a hate crime, he said.

The arrest came less than a year after the 27-year-old suspect was honored as class valedictorian at his FDNY graduation ceremony.

He is accused of breaking a piece of Plexiglas off a curbside news stand, and then throwing the fragment at a 51-year-old man who works at the stall, Farrell said.

The attack allegedly followed a racially charged verbal dispute in which Dailey said the man, an immigrant from Bangladesh, looked "like he's al-Qaida," Farrell said.

The victim, whose arm was cut in the alleged attack, was treated and released at a local hospital, the AP reports.