QUEENS — NYPD brass and elected officials are teaming up with the Bukharian community in the search for a fire-starting "ninja" who police said has recently set several Bukharian homes on fire in Forest Hills.
“We have a specific community [that] is being targeted so I need information coming back as to see where is that coming from,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce after the closed meeting held Tuesday at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills.
The NYPD has also added more resources including a command post at the intersection of 112th Street and 68th Avenue to help in the hunt for the suspect — a man caught on surveillance video wearing all black — who police said has struck seven times since Oct. 20.
Five of the seven fires targeted homes owned by Bukharian Jews, living in the Cord Mayer section of the neighborhood, between Jewel and 65th avenues and between Queens Boulevard and the Grand Central Parkway.
Most of the fires broke out at vacant buildings that were being renovated or under construction. One fire also erupted at the former Parkway Hospital building and one in a storage facility, police said.
"It is something that we take extremely seriously and the community stands together in making sure that we find this arsonist that is out there, destroying not only people’s homes, but people’s lives and people’s dreams," said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz.
Now the Bukharian community is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the arsonist, in addition to $12,500 offered by crime stoppers.
Local residents are also working on creating a neighborhood task force which would monitor the area in addition to officers from the department’s elite Strategic Response Group and the Arson and Explosion squad who are also working on the case along with Queens detectives and FDNY fire marshals.
The task force would consist of volunteers “concerned about the well-being of the community” who will be “patrolling the area ... in conjunction with the police department,” said resident and local activist Aron Borukhov.
Boyce said that while the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is looking at the case, the motive is still unknown and the fire are not currently being investigated as hate crimes.
Sources said that investigators are considering a variety of possible motives, including anger against the new homes in the area built by members of the Bukharian community that some residents say do not fit in architecturally.
Deputy Inspector Judith Harrison, the commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, said that there are about 29 homes under construction in the area and, while it’s impossible to constantly monitor all of them, police “are looking at each site.”
She also said it’s possible that the suspect lives in the area because he seems to know the neighborhood very well and is able to disappear shortly after setting the fires without being noticed.
Surveillance video released by police last month shows the suspect at the site of the Nov. 25 fire at 108-47 67th Drive. Based on that video, the suspect is described as being between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-7, with a slim build and dressed in a hooded sweatshirt.
Another surveillance video from Nov. 17 captured at 108-49 66th Ave. shows the suspect wearing all black and carrying a backpack, entering a construction site shortly before the blaze erupted.
Harrison asked residents with private surveillance systems to angle some of their security cameras out to partially monitor the streets as well.
“Obviously you want to protect your property, but if you angle them out on the street you may catch somebody walking by or driving by," Harrison said.
"We are going solve this crime together," said Boyce.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). All calls are strictly confidential.
