The suspect seen on church property moments before the fire. (Photo: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District Court of New York).
BY COLE SINANIAN | cole@queensledger.com
BUSHWICK — The person charged with burning down the 173-year-old South Bushwick Reformed Church in a June 19 arson attack that left the community reeling has been identified.
A complaint released in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday names 24-year-old John Jones as the defendant. Prosecutors said Jones confessed to setting the fire that destroyed the church in an interview after he was arrested Wednesday, August 5 for shoplifting a Midtown CVS. He had previously been arrested for allegedly smashing a TV at a Williamsburg Wine Bar on June 28, after which investigators recognized him from security camera footage taken at the scene of the church fire.
“Law enforcement has identified the defendant JOHN JONES on video surveillance footage linking him to the fire, including video of JONES purchasing a lighter from a nearby store shortly before the fire at the Church and video of JONES on the Church property in the area of the fire shortly before the fire began,” reads the complaint (link), filed in the Eastern District of New York.
Security footage from a camera on Bushwick Avenue shows a man in a dark hoodie approaching the church just after noon on June 19, before entering a convenience store a few blocks away from the church, where he exchanges words with the cashier and buys a lighter.
By 12:45pm, the suspect can be seen on the church’s property approaching its exterior. A photo taken by a witness at 1:27 shows smoke and flames rising from the lower part of the church’s Bushwick Avenue side. The complaint, attributed to NYPD Detective and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) officer Louis Ducceschi, explains that “low burning,” or the lowest physical area where fire damage is observed, indicates the fire’s point of origin.
The suspect seen in security footage right before the church fire. (Photo: US Attorney’s Office).
Prosecutors also said police recovered a notebook from Jones during his August 5 arrest that included several threatening and violent messages. In a photo published by ANMY, a page from the notebook appears to show several boxes organized under headings like “murder them,” “stab them,” and “make them pay,” under which appear fragments of the word “church” written repeatedly.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said Wednesday that Jones will likely appear in Brooklyn federal court in the coming days.
The South Bushwick Reformed Church, noted for its iconic tilted steeple and Greek Revival style, was listed as a New York City Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1968 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Its origins can be traced back to a congregation of Dutch Protestants that settled in the area — then known as “Boswijck,” Dutch for “neighborhood of the woods” — in the 1650s.
The Department of Buildings moved to demolish the charred remains of the building in July, before abruptly halting the demolition to allow for the church’s pastor, Reverend James Steward, to attempt to rebuild with independent contractors.
According to Bushwick resident and Bushwick Historic Preservation Association co-founder Dina Alfano, the lot cannot maintain its landmark status if demolition occurs.
“We’ve just lost so much, and what remains— we continue to fight to have it be protected,” Alfano said. “Once history is gone, there’s no getting it back.”
