Police: Man confesses in New York City firebomb attacks on places of worship

At the residence in Elmont, Long Island, the suspect allegedly told police that he was angry at an in-law who lived there. And at a torched Jamaica, Queens home, the suspect allegedly said that he was upset with someone who sold him drugs.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: CNN | News
By  Brian Vitagliano and Susan Candiotti  | January 3, 2012

New York (CNN) -- Police say a man who was questioned about five separate firebombings in New York City confessed to the attacks on Tuesday.

The man -- whose name has not yet been released -- is soon expected to be charged, said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.

An Islamic center and a Hindu place of worship were among those bombed during a Sunday fiasco that involved several Molotov cocktails, prompting police to launch an investigation over possible hate crimes.

But Browne noted that the man had "a gripe with someone at each location."

A source with knowledge of the investigation offered further details Tuesday about the seemingly innocuous grievances that allegedly preceded the weekend's attacks.


"In the case of the mosque, (the suspect) was mad at them because they wouldn't let him use the bathroom," the source told CNN.

At the attacked Hindu temple in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, which doubles as a residence, the accused arson allegedly had a dispute with someone who lived nearby or had worked there.

At the grocery store set ablaze -- also in Jamaica, Queens -- the man allegedly told investigators that someone threw him out of the store for shoplifting, the source added.

At the residence in Elmont, Long Island, the suspect allegedly told police that he was angry at an in-law who lived there. And at a torched Jamaica, Queens home, the suspect allegedly said that he was upset with someone who sold him drugs.

There "he accidentally set the wrong house on fire," the source added.

Before Browne's announcement, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters that officials were questioning a suspect in the attacks, in which a man hurled Molotov cocktails, made with explosive liquids and Frappuccino bottles from Starbucks, at four to five locations across the city.

No injures were reported in any of the incidents.

Dramatic video released by police on Monday showed a person lobbing a single flaming object toward a building. A fiery explosion can be seen an instant later.

"We do have someone we are speaking to," Kelly said earlier Tuesday. "He may be the person in the video."
The incidents have since sparked outcry within the Queens' neighborhood.

An official at the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center has said some 75 community members were leaving the center when they spotted a fire near the front door.

He said they found "two Molotov bombs" -- broken bottles containing flammable liquid.

"Thank God, nobody was injured and we're OK," said Maan Al-Sahlani, minister of religion at the center. "It's not major damage -- maybe because of the rain, maybe because our people tried to put down the fire."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the attacks in a statement Monday, saying such acts "go against everything we stand for as New Yorkers and Americans."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged police to increase security around mosques.


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