The New York church firebombing suspect was an illegal alien with pending cases involving armed threats and a prior firebombing, and is also a suspect in at least seven other arson investigations. He was arrested twice in June on the armed threat charges, then released under Zohran Mamdani’s anti-law enforcement policies, compounded by his refusal to cooperate with ICE.
Yogesh Sayrange, 36, was arrested Thursday after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at two Queens churches and an ambulette company late Wednesday night, according to the NYPD. Sayrange targeted Iglesia Bautista El Mesias Baptist Church in Ozone Park just before midnight, where surveillance video showed him speaking with three men before lighting a Molotov cocktail and throwing it over the front gate toward the entrance.
Sayrange then walked less than a mile to a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, where he allegedly threw a second Molotov cocktail at the front entrance at 12:08 a.m. Thursday. Investigators determined he also threw a third Molotov cocktail at the Exclusive Ambulette Service Transportation Corp.
Officers arrested Sayrange at a nearby deli at approximately 12:10 a.m. Thursday and recovered two additional Molotov cocktails from his backpack. According to prosecutors, he told investigators, “I had two more in my bag. I was going to finish the job.”
Federal authorities had already identified Sayrange before the church attacks in connection with a June 25 firebombing of a smoke shop on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. Prosecutors allege he threw an incendiary device, described in the criminal complaint as a green glass bottle wrapped with screws and containing hair, rocks, an ignitable liquid, and other materials, into the store while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. The device was attached to two black plastic bags with gray tape.
The NYPD used facial recognition software to match Sayrange to a photograph taken during an unrelated arrest on June 16. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashlyn Miranda said he is linked to at least seven other acts of arson over the past two weeks. Near the Kingdom Hall, Sayrange allegedly asked a group of men, “Do you want this institution to be turned into a mosque?”
He also faces two pending state cases: one in Manhattan, alleging he threatened someone with a metal-knuckle knife on June 12, and one in Queens, alleging he waved an ax at a man and threatened to cut his head off on June 16. Magistrate Judge Lara Eshkenazi ordered Sayrange held without bail. Miranda described him as a citizen of Guyana living in the United States illegally; Sayrange disputed this in court, saying he has a DACA renewal case in progress. Detectives are also investigating whether Sayrange is connected to a string of thefts of religious statues in the area.
Mamdani’s lack of support for the police became evident shortly after he took office. On January 26, 2026, NYPD officers responding to a 911 call for medical assistance during a mental health crisis encountered 22-year-old Jabez Chakraborty advancing toward them with a kitchen knife inside his Queens home.
An officer opened fire, shooting Chakraborty multiple times before the knife made contact. Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Chakraborty in the hospital and spoke with his family. Critics, including commentator Scott Jennings, said Mamdani had visited the man who charged an officer with a knife instead of the officer involved.
Mayor Mamdani has proposed a Department of Community Safety, a civilian-led agency intended to shift responsibility for mental health, homelessness, and outreach calls away from the NYPD and toward unarmed crisis response teams. Critics, including the Heritage Foundation, argue the plan diverts resources from law enforcement and relies on unarmed community outreach workers who lack the authority to deter or respond to violent situations.
Mamdani has also reversed a planned 580-officer NYPD expansion in the city’s FY2027 budget. The Police Benevolent Association said the decision would worsen officer burnout amid a staffing crisis, while liberal allies criticized him for not cutting the NYPD budget further to fund the new department instead.
During the first six months of Mamdani’s administration, the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly condemned New York City and New York State for refusing to honor ICE detainers. DHS said New York’s failure to honor detainers since January 20 had resulted in the release of nearly 7,000 criminal illegal aliens statewide, including murderers, sex offenders, and violent assailants.
As of its February statement, 7,113 aliens with active detainers remained in New York custody, facing charges that included 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drug offenses, 152 weapons offenses, and 260 sexual predatory offenses.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Mamdani’s policy would make New Yorkers less safe and urged the city to turn over criminal aliens in its custody before their release. DHS named several individuals it said the policy had shielded from deportation.
They included a Dominican national convicted of sexual assault, an Ecuadorian national convicted of rape, a Chinese national convicted of kidnapping a minor for ransom, an Israeli national convicted of child sex offenses, an Indian national convicted of homicide, a Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang member convicted of assault, and a Guatemalan national convicted of assault.
DHS also cited the case of Jose Posada-Hernandez, a four-times-deported Honduran national with 15 prior charges who was arrested for attempted murder after allegedly shoving an 83-year-old veteran onto subway tracks.
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