What to KnowA man suspected of torching 11 New York Metropolis police autos in Brooklyn final week — the primary of two such arson assaults within the final week — was beforehand arrested at pro-Palestinian protests and is needed for damaging a statue at Columbia College final fall, police mentioned.The NYPD on Wednesday launched photographs and a video of the suspect, a 21-year-old man from New Jersey, and requested the general public for assist discovering him. He remained at giant as of Thursday.Police are additionally investigating whether or not he’s additionally liable for trying to set hearth Wednesday to a police van in one other a part of Brooklyn.
A person suspected of torching 11 New York Metropolis police autos in Brooklyn final week — the primary of two such arson assaults within the final week — was beforehand arrested at pro-Palestinian protests and is needed for damaging a statue at Columbia College final fall, police mentioned.
The NYPD on Wednesday launched photographs and a video of the suspect, a 21-year-old man from New Jersey, and requested the general public for assist discovering him. He remained at giant as of Thursday.
Police are additionally investigating whether or not he’s additionally liable for trying to set hearth Wednesday to a police van in one other a part of Brooklyn.
Within the first assault, police mentioned, a person climbed over a gate round 1 a.m. on June 12 and positioned hearth starters on the windshields, hoods and tires of a number of autos in a police parking zone a few block from a police station in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.
The person then fled on foot, police mentioned, citing surveillance video they mentioned positioned the 21-year-old suspect on the crime scene. Not one of the autos had been occupied and no accidents had been reported.
On Wednesday, police mentioned, a hearth starter was discovered on a police van parked outdoors a diner in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg part. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny mentioned the machine was comparable however not the identical model as those utilized in Bushwick.
After final week’s hearth, Mayor Eric Adams steered that the suspect was linked to protests in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. Police, nevertheless, haven’t made that connection.
The suspect has two pending legal circumstances within the metropolis, in response to court docket data.
On Could 28, he was arrested in Manhattan and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for allegedly obstructing visitors and refusing to maneuver. In Could 2024, he was arrested in Queens and charged with assault and resisting arrest. He has pleaded not responsible in each circumstances.
He has but to be charged within the arson assault or the Columbia College vandalism final September. There, Kenny mentioned, he disguised himself as a pupil and brought on over $1,000 of injury to a campus statue.
