A 23-year-old New Yorker was nabbed for allegedly unleashing bear spray at a massive crowd of Pride revelers inside Washington Square Park, apparently out of fear of being assaulted himself, cops and sources said.
Dominick Sabater, 23, of Harlem, allegedly sprayed the substance – held inside an 8.1 ounce container with an image of a bear on the label – as the crowd in the greenspace swelled to about 1,000 people around 7:50 p.m., authorities and law enforcement sources said.
“At some point, a determination was made not to let anybody else into the park. It was overcrowded,” Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Monday. “They were using gates to let people leave the park, but nobody was allowed in. At some point, officers are made aware of a disturbance. It appears like a fight is going on.”
Sabater allegedly used the potent substance as a “deterrent” to keep the crowd away from him, out of fear that he would be jumped or get involved in a fight, the sources said…