Man arrested on hate crime charge in NYC firebomb attacks

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - A man who confessed to a string of New Year's Day arson attacks at an Islamic cultural center and four other sites where he had personal grievances was arrested on a hate crime charge, police said.

Photos: Suspect arrested in NYC firebomb attacks

Ray Lazier Lengend, a 40-year-old person of Guyanese descent, hurled crude firebombs at the Islamic center in part because he wasn't allowed to use its bathrooms, a law enforcement official said.

Lengend was tracked through a stolen car with Virginia license plates believed to be at the scene of at least two of the attacks Sunday evening on a convenience store, three homes and the cultural center, police said. He was arrested Tuesday on charges including one count of arson as a hate crime, four counts of arson and five counts of criminal possession of a weapon, they said.

Lengend, who lives in Queens, was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric examination Tuesday night.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said Lengend made statements implicating himself in the attacks. He reportedly had personal grievances with each targeted location. Crude firebombs were tossed at the convenience store, two homes in Queens, a home in nearby Nassau County and the Islamic center.

Authorities believe Lengend was kicked out of the convenience store on Dec. 27 for trying to steal a glass Starbucks Frappuccino bottle and milk. Four of the five firebombs thrown at the various locations were made from glass Starbucks bottles, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The fifth likely was made from a beer bottle.

Witnesses reported the man made threats as he was escorted out of the store, Kelly said.

"When they were pushing him out of the store, he said words to the effect that, `We're going to get even. We're going to get back at you,'" Kelly said.

No one was injured in any of the attacks, which made little or no damage at most of the sites.

The first hit was at 8 p.m., when a bottle was thrown at a counter at the corner store. Although the bomb did not explode, gasoline leaked out and a small fire started.

Ten minutes later, a beer bottle smashed through the glass at a nearby home, setting the curtains on fire and badly damaging it. Three children and at least two adults were inside.  One official said Lengend targeted that house because he believed it to be the home of a drug dealer. Authorities say he had the right street but the wrong address and didn't know the family inside.

About half an hour later, the Islamic center, the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation, was hit with two Molotov cocktails made from Frappuccino bottles.

Around 9:15 p.m., a homeowner in Elmont, just east of the city, reported a possible firebomb. He heard glass shattering, smelled gasoline and found a broken glass bottle on his porch. The official said the home belonged to a relative of Lengend and they didn't get along.

And shortly after 10 p.m., two bottles were thrown at a house that police said was used as a Hindu temple for worship services. The bottle didn't explode but caused a small fire on the lawn. The law enforcement official said Lengend targeted the home because he believed someone with whom he once had a fight lived there.

Detectives working with surveillance footage from a few of the attacks and witness descriptions of the attacker located the car at about 11:45 p.m. and staked it out. They said they noticed the man, who fit a police description of the attacker, trying to get into it Tuesday morning and took him into custody.

Authorities believe Lengend stole the car, a late-model Buick, from a rental lot at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 30. They say they found three empty Frappuccino bottles in the backseat.

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