A 36-year-old man threw Molotov cocktails at two houses of worship and a commercial building in Queens late Wednesday night, then was caught carrying two more homemade explosives in his bag when police took him into custody just after midnight, the New York Post reported.
The suspect, whose name has not been released, hit three targets in roughly an hour across the Ozone Park and Woodhaven neighborhoods before officers caught up with him. He now faces expected federal charges and arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
No one was injured. Both churches were closed at the time. But the brazenness of the spree, and the fact that investigators believe the suspect may be linked to similar attacks on houses of worship and commercial locations stretching back a month, raises an obvious question: How many buildings does a man have to firebomb before the system catches up?
The first attack came just before 11 p.m. Wednesday. Video footage showed the suspect standing outside Iglesia Bautista El Mesias, a church on 75th Street in Ozone Park, talking with three other men. He then lit a Molotov cocktail and hurled it over the gate at the church's front door. The bottle exploded and started a fire.
He walked away calmly.
The suspect then traveled less than a mile to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on 78th Street in Woodhaven. He threw a second Molotov cocktail at the building's front door. The bottle smashed and sparked a blaze. FDNY crews responded to both religious buildings and extinguished the flames. Police reported no serious damage or injuries at either location.
Around the same time, a third Molotov cocktail hit an ambulette services building on Rockaway Boulevard near 77th Street in Woodhaven. That building is not a religious institution, but it sits in the same neighborhood corridor. No damages or injuries were reported there either.
By approximately 12:10 a.m. Thursday, police had located the suspect. When they searched his bag, they found two additional Molotov cocktails, ready to go.
Sources told the Post that the suspect is expected to face federal charges and be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York. The specific statutes and charges have not been disclosed.
More troubling: investigators believe the man may be connected to other similar firebombing incidents dating back to last month. Those prior attacks reportedly targeted both houses of worship and commercial locations, though police have not released details about how many incidents are under review, where they occurred, or what evidence links them to the suspect now in custody.
The identity of the three men seen talking with the suspect outside the first church has not been clarified. It remains unknown whether they are witnesses, associates, or persons of interest.
Police have not offered any motive for the attacks. The suspect has not been named. The source of the video, whether from church security cameras or another system, has not been specified. And the condition of the ambulette building at the time of the attack, whether occupied or closed, has not been confirmed.
These gaps matter. When someone firebombs two churches in a single evening and walks calmly from one to the next, the public has a right to know whether this was a targeted campaign against religious institutions, a broader arson spree, or something else entirely. The federal charges, once filed, may begin to answer that.
Attacks on houses of worship with Molotov cocktails are not new, and they are not confined to New York. In Ohio, a 20-year-old named Aimenn D. Penny was arrested and charged with possessing a destructive device and malicious use of explosive materials after attempting to firebomb the Community Church of Chesterland on March 25, Fox News reported. Penny targeted the church to prevent a drag queen story hour event. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison for the explosives charge and up to ten years for possessing a destructive device.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Baeppler said after Penny's arrest:
"Violence and destruction are never an acceptable way to express a disagreement with a particular viewpoint."
That principle applies regardless of the target or the motive. Churches, synagogues, Kingdom Halls, these are places where Americans gather to worship. They should not require blast-proof doors to hold a Wednesday evening service.
Federal prosecutors now have a suspect in custody with physical evidence, the two unused Molotov cocktails found in his bag, and video footage of at least one attack. If investigators are correct that the same man is responsible for a string of firebombings stretching back weeks, the question shifts from whether they caught the right person to why it took this long.
Three buildings hit in one night. Two more devices ready to deploy. A possible trail of prior incidents across Queens. And the suspect, per the video, walked away from his first target as if he were leaving a corner store.
That kind of calm suggests someone who had done this before and expected to do it again.
The charges, when they come, need to reflect the severity of what happened, not just the damage that resulted, but the intent behind carrying five Molotov cocktails through a residential neighborhood and throwing them at houses of worship. Federal sentencing guidelines for destructive devices exist for exactly this kind of conduct. The Eastern District should use them.
The suspect's arraignment will be the next public checkpoint. The charges filed will signal whether prosecutors view this as a serial arson case, a hate crime, or something else. The investigation into prior incidents will determine how wide the net needs to be cast. And the three unidentified men seen with the suspect before the first attack remain an open thread.
For the congregants of Iglesia Bautista El Mesias and the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, the physical damage may have been minor. The message was not. Someone walked up to their front doors, lit a bottle full of accelerant, and threw it.
When people firebomb churches in America and walk away like it's routine, the justice system has one job: make sure they don't walk away again.
