Police have arrested a suspect accused of defacing a Brooklyn neighborhood with hate-laced graffiti, police said.

Pavel Andreenko, 22, has been charged with 44 counts of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment for spray-painting 12 swastikas on buildings in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn between December 19 and December 21, police said. At least five of the counts charge hate crimes, police said.

Mr. Andreenko, a heroin user, told investigators he had painted the graffiti in an attempt to discredit a former girlfriend’s new boyfriend, whom he described as bald and Jewish, police sources said.

Each time Mr. Andreenko painted a swastika during his three-day spree, he called 911 and said he saw a bald Jewish man fleeing the scene of the crime, police sources said.

When Mr. Andreenko struck for the third time on December 21, police had already set up surveillance. Within moments of his 911 call, police arrived on the scene to find Mr. Andreenko as the only person in the area, police sources said. However, he was not arrested due to lack of evidence, police sources said.

Mr. Andreenko had a run-in with police again on December 24, when he was arrested on a separate charge of menacing for getting into a fight, police sources said.

During the arrest, investigators noticed that he was wearing the same clothing as a suspect caught on surveillance tape painting swastikas and that his jacket was soiled with spray paint, police sources said.

Upon returning to court on Wednesday for the menacing charge, he was arrested by the department’s hate crime unit.