Federal and state grand juries have indicted a New York man on suspicion of hate crimes in connection with five New Year’s Day Molotov cocktail attacks, including one against a mosque and another on a building used as a Hindu place of worship.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the Queens district attorney yesterday announced their indictments separately in “parallel cases”, an unusual circumstance in which state and federal charges are brought over the same incident. The attacks alarmed religious leaders concerned over violent religious bigotry, although police said the suspect might also have been motivated by personal grudges.
Ray Lazier Lengend (40) confessed to all five fire-bombings upon being arrested two days after the attacks, police said at the time. His defence lawyer, Kenneth Deane, declined to comment.
Police said Lengend admitted to them that he planned to “take out as many Muslims and Arabs as possible . . . and made further references to his dislike of Muslims, Arabs and Hindus”, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
The state grand jury accused Lengend of first-degree arson as a hate crime, a charge that could result in 25 years to life in prison if convicted. The 36-count indictment also alleges grand larceny, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and other charges. – (Reuters)