Suspect in Brooklyn mezuzot torchings arrested
Ruben Ubiles, 35, to be charged with hate crimes; burned 11 mezuzot in Brooklyn during Holocaust Remembrance Day
The New York Police Department (NYPD) on Thursday arrested a suspect in a series of mezuzot torchings in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn.
The suspect, Ruben Ubiles, 35, is the alleged perpetrator of the hate crimes.
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The NYPD reported on Monday that 11 mezuzot had been torched in a residential building in southern Williamsburg. The next day another incident was reported in a neighboring building.
Ruben Ubiles, the suspect
Ubiles was charged with burglary, arson and criminal mischief, all felony hate crimes, the NYPD said.
The suspect has been arrested 50 times before on charges including robbery, assault, arms carrying and drug possesion.
No further background details have been given about Ubiles that might imply previous anti-Semitic activity.
The incidents coincided with the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, but NYPD told the New York
Times it is unclear whether the timing was coincidental or pre-planned.
“Nothing but hatred can explain why someone would burn mezuzahs on Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
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