{"id":314813,"date":"2026-08-06T01:07:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314813\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T01:07:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:07:05","slug":"man-charged-with-arson-in-fire-that-destroyed-historic-brooklyn-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314813\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged with arson in fire that destroyed historic Brooklyn church"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man has been charged with arson in connection to a June fire that destroyed a historic Brooklyn church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officials say 24-year-old John Jones, of Brooklyn, was arrested Wednesday and charged with intentionally setting fire<\/a> to South Bushwick Reformed Church on June 19.<\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance cameras captured Jones outside of the church, trying to get inside, just after noon that day.<\/p>\n

Video from a camera inside a nearby store allegedly shows Jones purchasing a lighter a short time later, around 12:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Investigators say video then captured him walking around the church again.<\/p>\n

Less than an hour later, a witness snapped a photo of the church on fire. Investigators say the photo shows the fire started at a low point and burned upwards.<\/p>\n

The fire grew to three alarms, engulfing the entire building and eventually causing the steeple to collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The FDNY said nobody was inside the church at the time. One firefighter suffered minor injuries and refused medical attention.<\/p>\n

“This defendant placed countless Brooklyn residents at risk when he recklessly set fire to the South Bushwick Reformed Church in broad daylight,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement, in part.\u00a0 “New Yorkers deserve to practice their faith freely and without fear, and the destruction of this sacred New York City landmark will be met with swift justice.”<\/p>\n

South Bushwick Reformed Church was constructed in the 1850s and designated a New York City landmark in 1968.<\/p>\n

Many in the area mourned the loss of the community staple, and church officials say they hope to rebuild in the future.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been charged with arson in connection to a June fire that destroyed a historic Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9449,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-314813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-bushwick","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314813","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=314813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}