BK Man Set Fire To Yeshiva, Vandalized Church In Same Week: Feds

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn man facing federal arson charges for trying to set fire to a yeshiva is also connected to vandalism at a Catholic church and two assaults in the borough, according to officials.

Ali Alaheri — who was arrested in Westchester on Friday — was caught on surveillance video piling garbage bags in front of the 36th Street building early Wednesday morning and setting them on fire, prosecutors said.

Less than a week earlier, he was caught on tape setting fire to an American flag outside Saint Athanasius Church on Bay Parkway, according to court documents. Officials also believe he toppled a cross and Jesus statue and defaced another statue with a hammer.

Alaheri is also connected to an assault on a Hasidic man just blocks from the yeshiva and on a Black man in the subway a few weeks earlier, documents show.

“As alleged in the complaint and detention letter, Alaheri deliberately set fire to the sacred home of a yeshiva and synagogue, and viciously attacked a man wearing traditional Hasidic garb, demonstrating a violent hatred that cannot be tolerated,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko. “This Office strongly condemns these sorts of intentional acts of violence and we will go to every length possible to prosecute this type of conduct to the fullest extent possible.”

Alaheri has been charged with arson and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted, officials said.

He was initially charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime for the vandalism at the church, though, according to the New York Times, the Brooklyn District Attorney is not pursuing charges against him.

When he was caught on Friday, officials say Alaheri had a stolen bike and was wearing the same clothes he wore when he assaulted a man in Hasidic clothing who was sitting outside an autobody shop on the same block as the 36th Street yeshiva and synagogue.

Alaheri was caught on video walking up to the man and punching him repeatedly in the head just hours after the yeshiva was set on fire, officials said.

The fire at the yeshiva and synagogue was put out by firefighters after a fire alarm went off at the building, according to officials.

In the video at the church, Alaheri is seen lighting the American flag on fire with a hammer in his back pocket before walking out of frame toward the cross and statue, documents show. The cross and statue were found knocked over the next morning and another Jesus statue was found with hammer markings, according to officials.

The subway assault, on May 5, was also caught on video. Alaheri — who investigators recognized and is wearing the same sweatshirt he was arrested in — began punching a Black man who was standing at a subway station mezzanine, prosecutors said.