NYC police seek 5 black youths after Jewish school bus blaze
An 11-year-old has already been charged with arson, criminal mischief in incident being treated as possible hate crime
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NEW YORK — Police on Tuesday were looking for five black youths seen on video torching a Jewish school bus in a neighborhood marred by race riots in the 1990s.
An 11-year-old boy already was arrested and charged as a juvenile with arson and criminal mischief in the Sunday evening blaze, which was being investigated as a possible hate crime. Surveillance video shows a group of boys running off the bus as it catches on fire, police said.
The bus belonged to the Bnos Chomesh Academy, a girls’ high school in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, where tensions between the Jewish and black communities living side by side spurred riots in 1991.
Police Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said a group of six youths took flat cardboard boxes on the unlocked bus and set them on fire on the seats.
“It was purposefully done with prior planning,” Boyce said. “Clearly this was a religious school bus. Anyone in the community knows that.”
It was the third incident being investigated by police as a possible hate crime during the past week in the neighborhood. On Friday, a bus driver for a different Jewish school said his side mirror was pelted with a brick and smashed by someone.
NYPD looking for more boys suspected in Crown Heights school bus fire https://t.co/ROkNpRMRzA pic.twitter.com/VSK4yQQoAK
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) May 10, 2016
The day before, a man dressed in religious Jewish clothing said he was harassed by a 13-year-old boy who shot rubber bands at him, police said. The man said he ran after and caught the boy, who punched him the face. Police said the man held the boy until they arrived. The boy was arrested on an assault charge and was being treated as a juvenile.
In the bus fire and in the assault, the suspects are black. The bus driver whose window was smashed said he didn’t see the attacker.
Boyce said the incidents in Crown Heights are “troubling.”
“We’re hoping to get out in front of it and make these arrests and close these things out,” he said.
Arson suspected in Crown Heights bus fire near Jewish school: https://t.co/2DVDFqSyYM (@BuffingActions) pic.twitter.com/M2IrUJgRHx
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) May 9, 2016
In 1991, riots began after a 7-year-old black boy, Gavin Cato, was struck and killed by a driver belonging to the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch community. Hours later, a group of blacks shouting “Get the Jew!” fatally stabbed Yankel Rosenbaum, who was visiting from Australia.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
The Times of Israel Community.