Federal prosecutors say the man police arrested Wednesday for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at two Queens churches wore an “Anonymous”-style mask when he carried out a similar attack on a store in Brooklyn in June.
Yogesh Sayrange, 36, lit an “incendiary device” and threw it into a shop on Fulton and Crescent Streets in Cypress Hills shortly after midnight on June 25, officials said in federal criminal complaint filed earlier this week and shared on Friday. The ensuing fire caused extensive damage to the store before the owner was able to put it out. No injuries were reported.
Prosecutors also expect to file charges against Sayrange for the more recent incidents, officials said, but the timing on those was unclear. In the meantime, he is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, records show.
Sayrange’s attorney, Kannan Sundaram of the Brooklyn Federal Defenders, did not immediately respond to a message.
Investigators who recovered the remnants of the device thrown in June said it was a glass bottle attached to screws and filled with what appeared to be hair, rocks, an ignitable liquid and other contents, all taped to two black plastic bags.
The federal complaint states that surveillance video then captured a masked Sayrange — who was also wearing a distinctive camouflage hoodie, dark pants and a black backpack — entering a deli across the street, buying something, and then leaving to join an outdoor barbecue nearby. While at the barbecue, Sayrange took off his mask, backpack and hoodie, and turned the garment inside-out, prosecutors said.
The criminal complaint does not lay out a possible motive for Sayrange’s alleged attack on the store, which is described as a smoke shop that also sells snacks and other items. The federal charges stem from the fact that Sayrange allegedly used fire and explosives to damage or destroy property used in interstate commerce, the complaint states.
Two weeks later, police arrested Sayrange in connection with three Molotov cocktail attacks in Queens — two of which involved houses of worship, according to the NYPD. No one was injured in any of the incidents, and the small fires they caused were quickly extinguished by the FDNY. Any motive for those attacks was also not immediately clear, police said. It was also unclear whether he wore a mask for the attacks in Queens.
Sayrange had an initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, according to the U.S. district attorney’s office. Officials on Friday said he had not yet appeared to face a judge on charges relating to the Queens incidents, but a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said that case would also be prosecuted federally.
