Man accused of setting fire to 11 NYPD vehicles is arrested and charged with arson

A 21-year-old man has been charged with setting fire to 11 New York City police vehicles in Brooklyn during a time of nationwide protests in June

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (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 U.S. District Court.

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 neighborhood shortly before 1 a.m. 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.

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 misdemeanor count in Manhattan.

After the 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., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release Monday.