A man in Florida has been arrested for breaking the window of a synagogue in the city of Sarasota in what police said was a hate crime intentionally targeting the Jewish community.
In a statement on Friday, the Sarasota Police Department said it had arrested Brayton Laschinger, a 30-year-old resident of the city, for smashing the window of the Chabad of Downtown SRQ.
According to police, Laschinger — wearing a blue towel over his head — threw a brick through the window of the synagogue around 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
“Laschinger claims that the same morning he saw propaganda on social media and that was making him mad,” the police statement said. “He admitted to detectives that he threw the brick at the window of the synagogue because it was a Jewish place of worship.”
Police said that Laschinger is facing a felony charge of criminal mischief of a religious building as a hate crime.
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According to a local Florida news report, police said the estimated value for repairing the damages caused by the brick was more than $5,000. The report said that Laschinger’s roommate helped police identify him based on the video footage.
Antisemitic attacks have soared across the United States over the past three years in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Last year, a man was arrested for an alleged arson attack at the Chabad of Charlotte County in the town of Punta Gorda. The fire damaged a children’s classroom in the building but did not result in any injuries.
And in 2024, a Jordanian national was arrested for targeting a series of businesses “in the Orlando area for their perceived support for Israel,” the Justice Department said at the time.
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