NYPD: Possibly real pipe bomb found in car after a family dispute between the men inside

NEW YORK — A man who approached New York City police Wednesday to say that his cousin had assaulted him then led officers to an unsettling find: a possibly real pipe bomb, officials said.

The chain of events began when a car rolled up to a Harlem stationhouse near noon with two men inside. The driver told officers that the passenger, his cousin, had hit him on the head with a machete, leaving a bloodied bruise, police officials said at a news conference.

Officers took the alleged assailant into the stationhouse and retrieved the machete, and the victim subsequently told them there was an explosive in the car, New York Police Department Assistant Chief Ruel Stephenson said.

Bomb Squad Lt. Mark Torre said officials found a “potentially viable explosive device” resembling a fairly large pipe bomb. After securing it, police were working to determine whether it was actually functional, he said.

Police said the suspect made rambling, incoherent remarks to officers and doesn't appear to have had a target for the device.

“We don’t have any reason to believe that he was headed anywhere specifically,” said Deputy Chief Jason Huerta of the department’s Counterterrorism Division.