D.A. Releases New Details On Queens Firebomber

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown has revealed new details

Ray Lazier Lengend, of Queens Village, was taken into custody by police and is currently being held at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on an 18-count indictment including charges of arson and arson as a hate crime.

Lengend allegedly used gasoline-filled glass bottles — Molotov cocktails — as his weapon of choice in a spree that included four firebombings in Queens and one on Long Island.

In statements made to police, Brown said, Lengend allegedly admitted that during his spree he wanted to try and “take out” as many Muslims and Arab’s as possible by starting a fire at the Al-Khoei Benevolent Association on the Van Wyck Expressway, possibly by aiming for a crowded balcony.

“Flames from such crude incendiary devices can spread quickly and have the potential to cause serious injury or death – to those in and around the buildings or to firefighters charged with fighting the blazes. Fortunately, that did not occur in this case,” Brown said. ““Equally troubling is the allegation that in at least one instance the defendant’s actions were instigated by hate.”

He stated emphatically that his office would prosecute hate crimes to the fullest extent of the law.

According to Brown, Lengend allegedly purchased five small coffee bottles at one gas station, then drove them to another to fill them up.

His first alleged attack was at a Hillside Avenue Deli where the owner had caught him attempting to shoplift the week before.

Following that was an attack on a home on 107th Avenue, where a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a bedroom window, causing fire damage, both inside and out.