New York Man Charged with Setting Fire to Police Vehicles

A man with a history of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests has been charged with setting fire to 11 New York City police vehicles last month. Jakhi McCray, 21, of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty to arson in U.S. District Court.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday, McCray was caught on surveillance video scaling a fence to a private lot for reserve New York Police Department vehicles in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood just before 1 a.m. on June 12. A police officer arrived at the scene about half an hour later to find the vehicles engulfed in flames and the suspect fleeing through a hole in the fence.

The complaint stated that a lighter and a pair of sunglasses with McCray’s fingerprints were discovered at the scene, along with fire starters that had been placed under some undamaged vehicles. The estimated cost of replacing the vehicles is $800,000.

McCray’s attorney, Ron Kuby, described his client as an activist and mentioned that he was released on the arson charge but is being held on a separate misdemeanor count in Manhattan.

After the vehicles were set on fire, Mayor Eric Adams suggested that the suspect may have been involved in protests in Los Angeles, New York, and other locations against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

“Setting police vehicles ablaze is not a form of protest — it is a federal crime,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a news release on Monday.