{"id":314658,"date":"2026-08-05T21:44:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314658\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:44:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:44:48","slug":"man-charged-with-arson-after-fire-at-south-bushwick-reformed-church-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314658\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged with arson after fire at South Bushwick Reformed Church \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 24-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday and is facing arson charges for allegedly \u201cintentionally and maliciously\u201d setting the fire that decimated the South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 19.<\/p>\n

John Jones is accused of starting the blaze that tore through the 1853 Greek Revival structure at 855-867 Bushwick Ave., according to a complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court on Aug. 5. The fire toppled the landmarked church\u2019s iconic steeple and destroyed its sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Defendant John Jones is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court in the coming days, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of New York said Wednesday.\u00a0
\n\"arsonThe defendant, John Jones, is expected to appear in federal court this week. Photo courtesy of Eastern District of New York\n<\/p>\n

Investigators allege in the complaint that surveillance footage links Jones to the church at the time the fire was set, including showing him buying a lighter at a nearby store on Broadway and being on the church site shortly before the blaze started. \u201cThe individual appears to make several unsuccessful attempts to enter the church and then departs,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n

The complaint says Jones was arrested on June 28 in relation to a \u201cseparate property destruction incident\u201d and investigators recognized him as the suspect in the church fire case.\n<\/p>\n

Jones was arrested on Aug. 5 after allegedly shoplifting food in Manhattan, and on June 28 for supposedly smashing a TV at DOC Wine Bar in Williamsburg, according to the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month, a neighbor said<\/a> surveillance video showed a person acting suspiciously around the church minutes before the fire broke out. A few days later, the FDNY confirmed the blaze was being investigated as arson.<\/p>\n

\"arsonSurveillance footage allegedly captured the suspect in the vicinity of the church. Photo courtesy of Eastern District of New York<\/p>\n

Bushwick residents and preservationists have been \u201cheartbroken\u201d by the fire<\/a> and the loss of the iconic local landmark.<\/p>\n

Since the blaze, the church and preservationists have been scrambling to save what is left of the iconic Greek Revival building, raising funds from the public, and negotiating with a developer over an air rights deal, they have said.<\/p>\n

The original 1853 church building at 855 Bushwick Ave., a country-style Greek Revival in white clapboard with its iconic steeple, was completely demolished by the city in the weeks after the fire. An attached addition known as Fellowship Hall at 867 Bushwick Ave. has been spared. With a striking pediment and pilasters, the Greek Revival addition was completed in 1881 as a Sunday school building. Church engineers said it is stable in their June 24 report. The entire structure was landmarked in 1968.<\/p>\n

\"southThe church has been demolished, while the Fellowship Hall next door has been spared, at least for now. File photo by Anna Bradley-Smith<\/p>\n

The city in July\u00a0halted its demolition<\/a> and turned over the site to the church, which in recent days has been performing asbestos remediation on Fellowship Hall in advance of shoring and stabilizing the structure, Dina Alfano of the Bushwick Historic Preservation Association said Monday.<\/p>\n

This week the church announced a $5,000 donation from the Harlem Abyssinian Baptist Church to help with the restoration.\n<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper\u2019s sister site Brownstoner<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 24-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday and is facing arson charges for allegedly \u201cintentionally and maliciously\u201d setting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[101,3094,98,100,99,9449,52821,23072,118793,419,2822,71545,64076,118794,545,118795,9,24,12,370,63,105953,86867],"class_list":["post-314658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-arrest","tag-arson","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-bushwick","tag-bushwick-avenue","tag-charges","tag-church-fire","tag-courts","tag-demolition","tag-eastern-district-of-new-york","tag-federal-charges","tag-fellowship-hall","tag-fire","tag-john-jones","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-south-bushwick-reformed-church","tag-u-s-attorneys-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}