Queens church Molotov cocktail suspect faces federal arson charges
Driver crashed into New York synagogue multiple times
The New York Police Department and the Department of Justice are investigating a possible hate crime after a car repeatedly crashed into the gates of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday. (Daniel David Yeroshalmi via Storyful)
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Yogesh Sayrange, 36, is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at two houses of worship and a nearby commercial building in Queens late Wednesday night before officers arrested him while carrying additional incendiary devices, according to police and law enforcement sources.
Sayrange allegedly targeted Iglesia Bautista El Mesias in the Ozone Park neighborhood shortly before 11 p.m.; Here, security camera footage shows him talking to three other men and then lighting a Molotov cocktail and throwing it at the front door toward the church’s entrance.
The bottle was fired near the front door before Sayrange walked away, according to surveillance video published by the New York Post.
THE PERSON WHO ALLEGEDLY THROWN A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL AT A PERSON SITTING IN A WHEELCHAIR NEAR OKC POLICE STATION WAS ARRESTED
Police allege Yogesh Sayrange threw a Molotov cocktail at the church late Wednesday night. (Google Maps)
The FDNY confirmed to Fox News Digital that it received a call at 11:57 p.m. Wednesday about an incendiary device thrown at a church on 75th Street in Ozone Park. Firefighters and NYPD are continuing the investigation.
Police said Sayrange then walked less than a mile to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses near Woodhaven, where he threw another Molotov cocktail at the front entrance of the building, sparking a second fire.
The FDNY also confirmed to Fox News Digital that it received a second call at 12:08 a.m. Thursday regarding an alleged incendiary device being thrown at a church on 78th Street in Woodhaven. Firefighters and NYPD are continuing the investigation.
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Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Woodhaven neighborhood of Queens. Police allege the building was targeted in a second Molotov cocktail attack late on Wednesday. (Google Maps)
No injuries or serious damage were reported at either church, police said.
Investigators later determined that Sayrange also allegedly threw a third Molotov cocktail at an ambulance service building on Rockaway Boulevard near 77th Street in Woodhaven around the same time, police said.
No injuries or damage were reported there, police said.
According to police sources, officers detained Sayrange around 12:10 a.m. Thursday and removed two more Molotov cocktails from his backpack.
Investigators are also examining whether Sayrange is linked to several similar incidents dating back to last month, according to law enforcement sources. Authorities have not publicly announced any additional cases linked to him.
An NYPD van parked on a street in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY, April 27, 2025. (Kyle Mazza/Anatolia via Getty Images)
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Sayrange appeared in federal court Thursday on charges that he threw an incendiary device into a Brooklyn business on June 25.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for additional information about the Queens investigation.
