By Emma Seiwell, Rocco Parascandola, Thomas Tracy, Julian Roberts-Grmela and Roni Jacobson
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A vandal torched 11 NYPD police cars in a Brooklyn parking lot just down the street from a police stationhouse early Thursday, police said.
At a press conference at the lot near the 83rd Precinct stationhouse on Knickerbocker Ave. and Bleecker St. in Bushwick, Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch decried the brazen act of vandalism, which the mayor tied to the ongoing anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles
“This is unacceptable,” Adams said. “We have stated over and over again, everyone has a right to peaceful protest. You do not have a right to destroy property of the City of New York . We have reasons to believe the person who participated in this act is connected to some of the protests that’s taking place in Los Angeles and throughout the entire country,” he added.
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But when asked what evidence he had connecting the vandalism to the unrest in LA, Adams did not elaborate.
The marked and unmarked NYPD vehicles were set ablaze inside the lot around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, cops said. The FDNY managed to put out the blaze within a few minutes. No injuries were reported, but the vehicles suffered extensive damage, according to officials.
Tisch did not offer a motive for the crime, but said that preliminary investigation has turned up surveillance footage of a masked suspect, who is dressed all in black, entering the lot after hopping a fence around 12:40 a.m. Around 40 minutes later, an officer from the 83rd Precinct caught the perpetrator in the act of committing the crime, or “in flagrante delicto,” as Tisch put it.
The officer “interrupted the perpetrator as he was setting fire to a number of vehicles, at which point the perpetrator threw a piece of plywood and fled through an alleyway,” Tisch said.
Investigators believe the vandal poured gasoline on the police cars before setting them on fire.
“On scene we found three vehicles that did not sustain fire damage with unignited fire-starter rolls and haystack bundles scattered across the rear passenger tires, the front tires and the windshield,” Tisch said. “In total, we found 12 unignited fire-starter balls and 10 unignited haystack bundles, as well as a torch-style lighter — all are legal to possess and can be purchased at stores like Home Depot.”
The vandal also busted the windshields of some of the vehicles that weren’t torched, a police source said.
“We are in the process of conducting a massive camera canvass at this time,” Tisch said. The incident is being investigated by the NYPD’s elite Arson Explosion Investigation Squad.
The NYPD could not say if the perpetrator was connected with the protests in LA, as the mayor asserted, but tensions between the Brooklyn neighborhood and police are running high for several reasons.
The attack happened just hours after protesters held a “Speak Out” at the stationhouse, during which they blasted the cops for their treatment of Puerto Rican Day Parade celebrants at after-parties in the neighborhood on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Community leaders called for calm as the vandalism stokes growing tensions between the NYPD and Brooklyn residents.
City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, D-Bushwick, called the cars’ torching “completely unacceptable.”
“Actions like this have no place in our neighborhood,” Nurse wrote on X Thursday. “Our community is already under stress with ICE present. Now is the time to de-escalate, stand together and work through our challenges peacefully.”
City Councilwoman Jen Gutiérrez, who also represents Bushwick, agreed with Nurse and called for cooler heads to prevail.
“We cannot stand up to this and any other threat with more violence,” Gutiérrez posted. “We must de-escalate and keep our families safe.”
Precinct officers are being accused on social media of having been heavy-handed as they broke up Puerto Rican Parade after-parties in Bushwick on Sunday.
“On Sunday evening, NYPD pigs from the 83rd Precinct launched a fascist offensive against the community of Bushwick, NYC, attacking Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Ricans during peaceful celebrations during the Manhattan and Brooklyn Puerto Rican Day Parades,” one post noted. “The first attack happened around the Bush Dyke Bar around 8 p.m. Victims of this unnecessary raid reported being slammed to the ground, resulting in hospitalizations.”
In a second incident, cops shut down an after-party at Mood Ring on Myrtle Ave . The incident resulted in at least one hospitalization, BKMag reported.
An NYPD spokesman said cops were called to the second venue around 12:20 a.m. Monday after getting a 311 call about a disorderly group outside.
Officers tried to disperse the crowd, but several people refused to leave, the spokesman said, adding that at least one partier assaulted a cop trying to move the crowd along.
Police took five people into custody. Three were hit with criminal charges, and two were given summonses for disorderly conduct, officials said. The criminal charges ranged from assault and resisting arrest to obstructing government administration and criminal mischief, cops said.
“The NYPD did not shut down the premises and no enforcement action was taken inside the establishment,” the NYPD spokesman added. “The NYPD entered the establishment only to speak with management.”
The NYPD was aware of the Wednesday night protest, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it was connected to the arson incident hours afterward.
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