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'Frappuccino Firebomber' Arrested in NY

By Andrew Chow, Esq. on January 05, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A New York man accused of lobbing Frappuccino firebombs at Muslim and Hindu religious sites faces arson and hate-crime charges.

Police arrested Ray Lazier Lengend, 40, of Jamaica, Queens, in connection with a series of attacks on Sunday, the website Gothamist reports. The firebombings targeted five buildings, including a mosque and a home used for Hindu religious services.

Lengend confessed to the attacks and made "broadly anti-Muslim statements" during questioning, a police spokesman tells Reuters.

Lengend used Starbucks Frappuccino bottles to make Molotov cocktails in at least four of the five firebomb attacks, police said. No one was hurt, but one home was severely damaged.

Lengend, who is originally from Guyana, told investigators he had "personal grievances with each location," police told Reuters.

The Frappuccino firebombing spree began at a Queens deli. Lengend had apparently been caught trying to steal a Frappuccino from the deli and vowed revenge, Gothamist reports.

Another firebomb attack targeted a mosque where about 80 people were attending services. Lengend was apparently upset that someone at the mosque had once refused to let him use the restroom, police said.

Lengend also allegedly attacked the private homes of a crack dealer and another man who had wronged him. The second man's home is also used for Hindu services, and was equipped with a security camera that caught the Frappuccino firebomber in the act.

You can watch the security camera footage in this Associated Press report:

Witness descriptions of the firebomber's stolen car led police to Lengend. Police found three empty Frappuccino bottles in the car's back seat, Gothamist reports.

Lengend is now undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. The accused Frappuccino firebomber faces five counts of criminal weapons possession, four counts of arson, and one count of arson as a hate crime, The New York Times reports.

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