STAPLETON — A nearly 150-year-old church received minor damage to its floor after an arsonist firebombed it Sunday, police said.
Somebody threw an incendiary device through a window of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church, at 224 St. Paul's Ave., causing minor damage to the tile floor, the NYPD said.
Rev. Frederick Schraplau, vicar of St. Paul's, said the church was closed at the time and nobody was inside. He said the device narrowly missed igniting wooden pews.
When he started Sunday morning mass he didn't notice the damage until a parishioner pointed it out and he called 911, he said.
No arrests had been made as of Monday and police said the Hate Crime Unit is assisting the Arson and Explosion Unit in the investigation.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church was built between 1866 and 1870 by famed architect Edward Tuckerman Potter, known for designing the Mark Twain House. It was designated a landmark in 2004, according to the Landmark's Preservation Commission.
