A Brooklyn man on Monday was charged with arson for setting 10 New York City Police Department vehicles and a trailer on fire in a locked parking lot in Bushwick in June.
The defendant was identified as Jakhi McCray, 21, by Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney Eastern District of New York.
According to the complaint, at 12:52am on June 12, 2025, McCray was recorded on surveillance video scaling a fence into a secure private lot for reserve NYPD
vehicles assigned to precincts in northern Brooklyn. The lot contained numerous NYPD vehicles and was located on DeKalb Avenue between Wilson Avenue and Central Avenue. McCray remained in the lot for approximately 32 minutes, during which he lit 10 NYPD vehicles and one trailer on fire.
“This destructive act of arson was deliberate, dangerous, and deeply disruptive,” Nocella said in a statement. “Setting police vehicles ablaze is not a form of protest—it is a federal crime."
At approximately 1:24am, an NYPD officer arrived to inspect the lot. As he approached, the officer saw the fire and observed McCray attempting to escape by scaling a fence, then fleeing through an existing hole in the fence. Subsequently, NYPD personnel recovered at the scene a cigar lighter torch and a pair of sunglasses. They also discovered 22 retail fire starters and 10 BBQ dragon egg fire starters that were placed under three undamaged vehicles.
It was later determined that the sunglasses had McCray’s fingerprints on them. The vehicles were ignited two days before protests were scheduled to be held over the June 14-15, 2025 weekend. The NYPD has estimated that the total replacement cost of for the damaged vehicles is over $800,000.
“The defendant in this case may have wanted to send a message – but all he did was mobilize the full force of the NYPD, the ATF, and the FDNY to identify, locate, and arrest him," said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Additional surveillance video from after the arson tracks the defendant to a nearby bodega at approximately 1:51am, according to the complaint. Here, McCray's identification is shown in his wallet when he pays for water.
