BOROUGH PARK — Police arrested a former member of the city's finest Saturday night after residents in Brooklyn saw the man allegedly painting cars and buildings, including a girls' school, with hate-filled slogans.
Michael Setiawan, 36, of Bellerose, was arrested nearby, and was discovered to be a former member of the NYPD, who resigned in 2007.
The NYPD did not have any details related to his departure from the force, and only said he had been with the department for two years before leaving.
"We've had nothing to do with this person for seven years," a spokeswoman said.
The NYPD first responded at 8:54 p.m. to Bnos Zion of Bobov, a all-girls Orthodox school at 5000 14th Avenue, after receiving calls that anti-Jewish graffiti had been appearing around the neighborhood.
On arriving, the officers found pink spray-paint with anti-Semitic sayings covering 15 vehicles and four buildings in the vicinity, police said. Around 10:30 p.m. Twitter user Life Saver aka @Willihock, began posting images of the pink scrawlings, noting "66th Pct. Investigation hate crime in BP. Anti-semitic graffiti sprayed on Shabbos," with the first image, of paint on a building.
Setiawan was charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime, aggravated harassment as a hate crime, and criminal mischief, police said.