New York police say guns in photos that caused a scare may have been for paintball

New York City police were alerted and a Coast Guard station was locked down briefly after a photo surfaced of people carrying what appeared to be assault rifles on Staten Island. But authorities say there appears to be no threat, and the weapons may have been paintball guns.

Police issued an alert to officers after a retired colleague photographed the people Friday in a parking lot near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Officers searched for two vehicles seen in the photos. Patrol cars were stationed near the bridge amid heightened security after four Marines were shot dead Thursday in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Access to the Coast Guard station near the bridge returned to normal around 3 p.m. A spokesman, Petty Officer Iannazzo Simmons, says police determined the unconfirmed threat was “no longer significant.”

John J. Miller, NYPD’s deputy commissioner of public information, released this statement about 6 p.m. EDT:

“Earlier today, the NYPD received information from a retired New York City police officer who observed suspicious activity in the parking lot of Midland Beach in Staten Island. The complainant photographed this activity and supplied the pictures to the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau for investigation. The images show a man and a woman handling what appear to be semi-automatic rifles and pointing it in the windows of two cars. In some of the pictures, they are smiling. A bulletin was issued to law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the two vehicles and the individuals in the photographs in order to interview them. As part of the ongoing investigation, NYPD firearms experts conducted a forensic examination of the photographs. The preliminary opinion of these experts was that the weapons in the pictures strongly resemble replicas of firearms used in ‘paintball’ games. Interviews conducted by NYPD and FBI investigators in New Jersey have revealed that the registered owner of one of the vehicles indicated that he was planning to go paintball shooting with friends today.

“The investigation is continuing.”