EAST FLATBUSH — A 10-year-old boy, who Police Commissioner Bill Bratton described as a “one-kid crime wave,” was arrested for lighting a fire inside a neighborhood store this week — one day after he was arrested for trying to rob a 67-year-old woman in Crown Heights.
The pint-sized arsonist was with a group of other kids when he torched merchandise at the Deals department store at Clarkson and Rogers avenue in East Flatbush roughly 4 p.m. Tuesday, police and sources said. Officers arrested the 10-year-old, who will be charged as a juvenile in family court, officials said.
The kid had been arrested with another 10-year-old the previous day for mugging an elderly woman in Crown Heights who he had asked for change, police said. The boy had been released to his family following that incident, NYPD officials said.
“That kid’s a one-kid crime wave, unfortunately — a very troubled young individual,” said Commissioner Bratton of the boy at a Summer Youth Academy graduation ceremony at the Barclays Center on Thursday.
Other than his 10-year-old accomplice in the Crown Heights attempted mugging, none of the other children who were with the 10-year-old at the time of either incident — including a 4-year-old boy who was present during the attack on Wednesday and an 11-year-old who was there during the department store fire — have been charged with any crimes, officials said.
Employees at Deals referred questions about Tuesday’s incident to their parent company, Dollar Tree. Inquiries to the company were not immediately returned.
