Pro-Palestine protester surrenders on charges he torched 11 NYPD vehicles in Brooklyn

A pro-Palestine, anti-ICE protester has surrendered to federal authorities to face charges he torched 11 parked NYPD vehicles last month.

Jakhi Lodgson-McCray, 21, of New Jersey, is accused of lighting the NYPD vehicles on fire as they sat unoccupied in a lot near the 83rd Precinct stationhouse in Bushwick June 12, an act that Mayor Adams described at the time as “connected to some of the protests that’s taking place in Los Angeles and throughout the entire country.”

Lodgson-McCray surrendered on Monday, his lawyer, Ron Kuby, confirmed.

“He intends to enter a plea of not guilty,” Kuby said. “Unfortunately, the NYPD under the leadership of our Trump puppet mayor has been working with and actively cooperating with ICE.”

The marked and unmarked NYPD vehicles were set ablaze inside the lot around 1:30 a.m. June 12, cops said. The FDNY managed to put out the fires within a few minutes. No injuries were reported, but the vehicles suffered extensive damage, according to officials. Lodgson-McCray was caught on video in a nearby bodega, police said.

The attack happened just hours after protesters held a “Speak Out” at the stationhouse, where they blasted police for their treatment of Puerto Rican Day Parade after-parade celebrants a few days earlier.

In a statement released through Kuby Monday, Lodgson-McCray wrote, “There’s a real chance that I won’t see the outside of a cell for years” and called his arrest a “scare tactic.”

“It’s not new to Palestinians and Arabs that are being assassinated, deported, and (harassed). I’ve met immigrants that live under daily paranoia, not knowing whether or not ICE goons will bust through their doors and kidnap their families,” he wrote.

Lodgson-McCray has ongoing cases for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault in both Manhattan and Queens, according to law enforcement officials.

During a protest on May 15, 2024, near 31st Ave. and 34th St. in Astoria, he threw eggs at multiple police officers, police allege, then reportedly taunted one of the arresting officers, “You are a p—y. Take these handcuffs off and we can go one on one.”

Last year, he was accused of joining two others to set fire to American and Israeli flags outside the Israeli Consulate in Midtown. The outcome of that case was not immediately known.

Lodgson-McCray was also wanted for a September 2024 criminal mischief incident at Columbia University, where he disguised himself as a student and caused more than $1,000 in damage to a campus statue, police said.

He’s slated to be arraigned Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court.