Police investigate four arson attacks in NYC as possible bias crimes
(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Police are investigating a string of suspected arson attacks in New York as possible bias crimes. They are now trying to determine if the incidents were linked.
On Sunday night, as members of an Islamic cultural center gathered for dinner, an unknown assailant hurled a Molotov cocktail that shattered against the center's main entrance. It was made from a Starbucks bottle. Another was thrown at the sign for the center's school.
The Imam Al-Khoei Foundation's building suffered minimal structural damage, but some memebers of the center were emotionally shaken, assistant Imam Maan Al-Sahlani said. "We were very surprised," he said. "This has never happened before."
About 80 worshippers were there when the firebomb was thrown at 8:44 p.m. It was the third in the series of suspected arson attacks in Queens on Sunday night.
Other targeted locations were damaged more than the cultural center, although no one was injured in the four attacks. Police said at least three Molotov cocktails were thrown, the first, hitting at 8 p.m. when it was thrown at a counter at a corner store.
Ten minutes later, a nearby house was damaged when a possible firebomb smashed through glass. It took 40 minutes to get the fire under control, authorities said.
At 10:24 p.m., two bottles were thrown at a house authorities said was used for Hindu worship services, although the bottles did not explode.
Law enforcement officials believe the suspects fled the scenes of the third and fourth attacks.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said New York Police Department hate crimes unit detectives were working with precinct detectives and looking into whether there were any connections to incidents outside the city.
Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the violence.
"The four reported attacks on Sunday night go against everything we stand for as New Yorkers and Americans," Cuomo said in a statement. "Attacks such as this have no place in our open and inclusive society."
No arrests have been made in the attacks.