Driver repeatedly rams NY synagogue
Investigations are underway by the New York Police Department and the Department of Justice into a potential hate crime, following an incident where a vehicle repeatedly crashed into the entrance of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters located in Brooklyn, happening on Wednesday. (Daniel David Yeroshalmi via Storyful)
Authorities have charged 36-year-old Yogesh Sayrange with hurling Molotov cocktails at two religious buildings in Queens and an adjacent commercial property late Wednesday night. He was apprehended while in possession of more incendiary devices, as per reports from law enforcement.
Allegedly, Sayrange targeted the Iglesia Bautista El Mesias situated in the Ozone Park area shortly before 11 p.m. Surveillance footage purportedly captures him conversing with three other individuals before igniting a Molotov cocktail and tossing it over the church’s front gate towards the entrance.
The surveillance video, reported by the New York Post, shows the bottle bursting into flames near the church’s entrance as Sayrange departed the scene.
Police claim that late Wednesday night, Yogesh Sayrange was responsible for launching a Molotov cocktail at the church. (Google Maps)
The FDNY confirmed to News Media that it received a call at 11:57 p.m. Wednesday for a reported incendiary device thrown at a church on 75th Street in Ozone Park. Fire marshals and the NYPD are investigating.
Police said Sayrange then walked less than a mile to a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in nearby Woodhaven, where he allegedly threw another Molotov cocktail at the building’s front entrance, sparking a second fire.
The FDNY also confirmed to News Media that it received a second call at 12:08 a.m. Thursday for a reported incendiary device thrown at a church on 78th Street in Woodhaven. Fire marshals and the NYPD are investigating.
A 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 Wednesday. (Google Maps)
Police said no injuries or significant damage were reported at either church.
Investigators later determined 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.
Officers took Sayrange into custody at about 12:10 a.m. Thursday and recovered two additional Molotov cocktails from his backpack, according to police sources.
Investigators are also examining whether Sayrange may be connected to several similar incidents dating back to last month, according to law enforcement sources. Authorities have not publicly announced any additional cases tied to him.
An NYPD van parked on a street in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, N.Y., April 27, 2025. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Sayrange appeared in federal court Thursday on charges he threw an incendiary device into a Brooklyn business June 25.
News Media has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for additional information about the Queens investigation.