{"id":1522802,"date":"2026-07-09T10:23:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?guid=af6235070db2b86a02f1edcb2dbe3aa6"},"modified":"2026-07-09T10:49:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:49:48","slug":"man-arrested-for-allegedly-throwing-molotov-cocktails-at-queens-houses-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1522802","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at Queens houses of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/07\/ee4859182fdeb64cadf953c231fdbf12.jpg\" alt\/><figcaption>Stock image of Molotov cocktail. (Sinenkiy\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>(NEW YORK) -- A man was arrested after he allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at two different houses of worship and another building in Queens Wednesday night, the New York City Police Department said.<\/p><p>Officers responded to a 911 call at Iglesia Bautista El Mesias Church in Ozone Park around 11:35 p.m. about a man allegedly throwing the incendiary device, according to the NYPD.<\/p><p>Surveillance footage showed the suspect lighting the Molotov cocktail and then throwing it at the church before walking away after it exploded on the ground, police said.<\/p><p>The New York City Fire Department put out the fire. No one was hurt and there was no significant damage to the building, according to the police.<\/p><p>Alex Garcia, the pastor of the church, told ABC News' New York City affiliate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/man-arrested-throwing-molotov-cocktails-2-queens-religious-buildings-police-say\/19474295\/\">WABC&nbsp;<\/a>that the house of worship has been around for 20 years.<\/p><p>\"We have no enemies, so I don't know where this is coming from,\" he told the station.<\/p><p>The suspect, who police only identified as a 36-year-old man, then allegedly traveled a mile north to Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and allegedly lit and threw another Molotov cocktail at the house of worship, according to investigators.<\/p><p>There were no reported damage or injuries at that location, police said.<\/p><p>The suspect was arrested by police later in the night, according to the NYPD.<\/p><p>Investigators discovered that he allegedly threw another Molotov cocktail at a third location in the area, according to the NYPD. That building also sustained no damage, and there were no injuries, investigators said.<\/p><p>Police alleged that the suspect had a bag with two other Molotov cocktails inside at the time of his arrest.<\/p><p>The suspect's charges and arraignment were pending as of Thursday morning, police said. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p><p>Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stock image of Molotov cocktail. (Sinenkiy\/Getty Images)(NEW YORK) &#8212; A man was arrested after he allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at two different houses of worship and another building in Queens Wednesday night, the New York City Police Department s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":1522803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2026-07-09\/G_RF_molotovcocktail_070926.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1522802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-national-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 12:39:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2026-07-09\/G_RF_molotovcocktail_070926.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1522802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1522807,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522802\/revisions\/1522807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1522803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1522802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1522802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1522802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}