At Least 11 NYPD Cars Firebombed at Police Station as Anti-ICE Protests Spread; Masked Men in Black Flee Scene
Investigators recover a ‘torch lighter’ and undetonated devices.
New York City police are investigating an early-morning fire at a Brooklyn precinct parking lot that burned at least 11 NYPD cars as an arson attack after explosives were found at the scene.
The fire started in the parking lot of the 83rd Precinct at 1:24 a.m. on Thursday and raged throughout the early morning. At least 14 vehicles were affected and 11 were severely damaged by the fire, Mayor Adams said during a press conference. Police recovered a “torch lighter” at the scene, according to an NYPD representative.
Investigators also discovered undetonated explosive devices, similar to M-80 firecrackers, in and around the destroyed vehicles, and they detected a strong smell of gasoline, according to WABC-TV.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed two men dressed in black and wearing masks running from the fire.
Mr. Adams called the damage caused by the fire “unacceptable.”
“It takes courage to put on a uniform, but you can be a coward to burn property and to damage property intentionally,” Mr. Adams said.
The parking lot is used by both the 83rd Precinct and Patrol Borough Brooklyn North.
The possible arson attack follows days of anti-ICE protests around Foley Square in Lower Manhattan, where demonstrators have clashed with police following aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, with some protesters preventing federal vans from entering a detention center used to hold immigrants. Police arrested 10 protesters throughout the city on Wednesday, far fewer than the 86 protesters arrested Tuesday night.
The suspected arson attack at the 83rd Precinct resembles recent firebombings that targeted Tesla showrooms across the country in protest of a former White House advisor, Elon Musk. In April, a member of an LGBT science visibility campaign, Jamison Wagner, was arrested and charged with destroying two Tesla vehicles at an Albuquerque showroom after allegedly planting homemade incendiary devices inside the vehicles and setting them on fire. Mr. Wagner was also accused of spray-painting “Die Elon” and “Die Tesla Nazi” on the showroom’s exterior. He is awaiting trial.
Similar firebombing incidents occurred at other Tesla dealerships nationwide, including in Seattle and Kansas City, which the FBI director, Kash Patel, has described as “domestic terrorism.”
