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Monday, July 21, 2025
New York anti-Israel activist charged with torching 11 police vehicles
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLuke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
Officials in New York charge an anti-Israel protester, Jakhi McCray, with setting 11 NYPD vehicles on fire last month.
McCray allegedly climbed a fence to access a parking lot for police vehicles on June 12, in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Once inside the lot, he ignited 10 NYPD vehicles and a trailer, the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York says.
The cost to replace the vehicles is around $800,000.
McCray, 21, is charged with arson and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The NYPD identified McCray as a suspect last month. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the time that McCray was “very active in the protest community, involving the Free Palestine movement.”
Kenny also said McCray damaged a statute at Columbia University during protests on the campus last year.
“Free Palestine” arsonist accused of torching 11 NYPD cars, Jakhi Lodgson-McCray, arrested after a month-long manhunt
Lodgson-McCray reportedly caused at least $800,000 in damages and already had multiple protest-related arrests during the Columbia University protest last… pic.twitter.com/xE7JEiwd5x
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 21, 2025
Anti-Israel activist groups, including at Columbia, rally behind McCray ahead of his initial court appearance this afternoon.
“The time has come to rise in solidarity for our comrade, Jackhi McCray,” says Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the campus alliance leading anti-Israel protests at the university.
The Times of Israel Community.