A Fairfield man was arrested in New York City this week after police connected him with an incident in which a flag bearing two swastikas was raised over a New York University building last month.
Alexander Stepnowsky, 23, was arrested around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed.
He is charged with burglary as a hate crime, first-degree aggravated harassment, and criminal trespass as a hate crime, police said Thursday. A police official familiar with the investigation said Stepnowsky had turned himself in to authorities.
At his arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday morning, Stepnowsky pleaded not guilty to all three charges and was released, court records show. He is due back in court Aug. 4.
The arrest comes nearly three weeks after the May 13 incident, in which police say Stepnowsky hoisted a flag bearing two swastikas, a Star of David and an NYU logo over the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development in the midst of graduation festivities.
The building is named after billionaire Jewish philanthropists Michael and Judy Steinhardt, who donated $10 million to the university in 2001. Michael Steinhardt is one of the founders of Birthright Israel, which offers free trips to the country for Jewish young adults.
This is Stepnowsky’s first arrest by the NYPD, a spokesperson confirmed, and he appears to have no criminal history in Connecticut, according to judicial records. A spokesperson for NYU told the New York Times that Stepnowsky was a student at the school at the time of the incident.