Brooklyn 11-Year-Old Hit With Hate Crime Charges for Allegedly Setting Jewish School Bus on Fire

Photo via @NYScanner

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — An 11-year-old Brooklyn boy has been arrested for allegedly setting a school bus on fire outside Beth Rivkah Elementary, a Jewish girls school at Brooklyn and Lefferts avenues, according to the NYPD.

The boy, whose name will not be released because he's a minor, has since been charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime and arson as a hate crime, police told Patch.

Surveillance video published by the local Jewish news blog CrownHeights.info shows at least five small boys darting in and out of the bus with pieces of cardboard and other supplies.

The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) responded to reports of a vehicle fire around 6 p.m. Sunday, and had doused the flames within an hour, according JP Updates, another Jewish news site.

No injuries were reported.

Cops are now reportedly trying to identify the other four boys in the video. "The incident remains under investigation," an NYPD spokesperson said via email.

Chani Klein, a parent at the Beth Rivkah, told the New York Daily News of the bus fire: "It's terrible. I'd like to see these kids get some help."

"I don't know why they would do that," Klein said. "Maybe they were just bored, or maybe it really was about hate. Either way they blew up a bus. They need help."

Another group of young black teens allegedly attacked an Orthodox Jewish man a bit further north in Crown Heights the Friday prior. Vinny Martinos, an officer with the area's 71st Precinct, told COLlive, another local Jewish site: "We will be increasing Police coverage and visibility in the Jewish area. The weather is getting warmer."