World News | Man Accused of Setting Fire to 11 NYPD Vehicles is Arrested and Charged with Arson
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. A man with a history of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests was charged Monday with setting fire to 11 New York City police vehicles last month.
New York, Jul 22 (AP) A man with a history of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests was charged Monday with setting fire to 11 New York City police vehicles last month.
Jakhi McCray, 21, of Brooklyn pleaded not guilty to arson in US District Court.
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A criminal complaint unsealed Monday said McCray was recorded on surveillance video scaling a fence to a private lot for reserve New York Police Department vehicles in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighbourhood shortly before 1 am on June 12. A police officer arrived about a half hour later to find the vehicles on fire and the suspect fleeing through a hole in the fence, it said.
The complaint said a lighter and a pair of sunglasses containing McCray's fingerprints were found at the scene, along with fire starters that had been placed under some undamaged vehicles.
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Police estimated the replacement cost of the vehicles at $800,000.
McCray's attorney, Ron Kuby, said his client, whom he described as an activist, was ordered released on the arson charge but remained in police custody on a separate misdemeanour count in Manhattan.
After vehicles were torched, Mayor Eric Adams suggested the suspect was connected to protests in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda.
“Setting police vehicles ablaze is not a form of protest — it is a federal crime,” Joseph Nocella Jr, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release Monday. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)