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The NYPD on Wednesday released photos and a video of the
suspect, a 21-year-old man from New Jersey, and asked the public
for help finding him. He remained at large as of Thursday.
Police are also investigating whether he is also responsible for
attempting to set fire Wednesday to a police van in another part
of Brooklyn.
In the first attack, police said, a man climbed over a gate
around 1 a.m. on June 12 and placed fire starters on the
windshields, hoods and tires of multiple vehicles in a police
parking lot about a block from a police station in Brooklyn’s
Bushwick neighborhood.
The man then fled on foot, police said, citing surveillance
video they said placed the 21-year-old suspect at the crime
scene. None of the vehicles were occupied and no injuries were
reported.
On Wednesday, police said, a fire starter was found on a police
van parked outside a diner in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the device was
similar but not the same brand as the ones used in Bushwick.
After last week’s fire, Mayor Eric Adams suggested that the
suspect was connected to protests in Los Angeles, New York and
elsewhere over the Trump administration’s immigration
enforcement agenda. Police, however, have not made that
connection.
The suspect has two pending criminal cases in the city,
according to court records.
On May 28, he was arrested in Manhattan and charged with
disorderly conduct and resisting arrest for allegedly
obstructing traffic and refusing to move. In May 2024, he was
arrested in Queens and charged with assault and resisting
arrest. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
He has yet to be charged in the arson attack or the Columbia
University vandalism last September. There, Kenny said, he
disguised himself as a student and caused over $1,000 of damage
to a campus statue.
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