NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) —
A person with a historical past of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests was charged Monday with setting fireplace to 11 New York Metropolis police automobiles final month.
Jakhi McCray, 21, of Brooklyn pleaded not responsible to arson in U.S. District Courtroom.
A felony grievance unsealed Monday mentioned McCray was recorded on surveillance video scaling a fence to a personal lot for reserve New York Police Division automobiles in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood shortly earlier than 1 a.m. on June 12. A police officer arrived a couple of half hour later to seek out the automobiles on fireplace and the suspect fleeing by way of a gap within the fence, it mentioned.
The grievance mentioned a lighter and a pair of sun shades containing McCray’s fingerprints had been discovered on the scene, together with fireplace starters that had been positioned underneath some undamaged automobiles.
Police estimated the alternative value of the automobiles at $800,000.
McCray’s lawyer, Ron Kuby, mentioned his consumer, whom he described as an activist, was ordered launched on the arson cost however remained in police custody on a separate misdemeanor depend in Manhattan.
After the vehicles were torched, Mayor Eric Adams advised the suspect was linked to protests in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
“Setting police automobiles ablaze isn’t a type of protest — it’s a federal crime,” Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. lawyer for the Japanese District of New York, mentioned in a information launch Monday.
