The New York Police arrested a man accused of torching an NYPD patrol car and being held without bail.
The 29-year-old construction worker Sam Resto was arrested on Thursday at his work, after the police arrived at his Queens apartment and found a smiley face spray painted on the wall with the words, “Too late.”
The prosecutor said that he admitted to the FBI that he intends to flee the country, when authorities found his passport in his backpack.
Before he allegedly set the patrol car on fire, Resto was arrested twice – once for “allegedly swinging a chain” at someone during a parking dispute on July 10, and another during an anti-police brutality protest on the Brooklyn Bridge on July 15.
Resto has been under the NYPD, and on July 28 the officers watched him as he went to a gas station and filled up a red jerry can with gasoline using the self-service pump in Elmhurst.
He stayed home until 11:47pm, and then headed to Manhattan via ride share wearing the same clothes he wore at the gas station – a dark Adidas hat, a dark long-sleeve top, dark jeans, dark Nike sneakers and gloves with the fingers cut off.
Surveillance video captured someone wearing the same clothes plus a Guy Fawkes mask walking up to an NYPD Ford Fusion in the Upper West Side in the early morning of July 29.
The prosecutor said that the man in question shattered the passenger-side window and poured gasoline inside, lighting it on fire then headed east toward Central Park.
Officers found a backpack in the park with an Adidas hat, gloves with the fingers cut off, a Guy Fawkes mask, a hammer, lighter and red jerry can inside.
Police pulled fingerprints from the jerry can matched them to Resto.
They also found a copy of “The Anarchist’s Cookbook” – a book with recipes for bombs and other explosive devices following his arrest.
Prosecutors argued that Resto must be held without bail pending his trial, and claimed that he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Resto faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.