{"id":315499,"date":"2026-08-06T20:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/315499\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T20:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:52:51","slug":"brooklyn-church-arson-suspect-kept-journal-filled-with-violent-threats-prosecutors-say-in-call-for-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/315499\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn church arson suspect kept journal filled with violent threats, prosecutors say in call for detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a letter to Eastern District of New York Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Bristow argued that Jones should be detained after police recovered a notebook that seemed to contain violent threats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutors claimed that Jones confessed to committing the church arson during an interview with law enforcement after he was arrested for shoplifting at a Midtown CVS on Aug. 5. Jones also told police that he had recently attempted to burn down a second church in Brooklyn, according to the prosecutors\u2019 letter.<\/p>\n

When he was arrested on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said, that Jones had in his possession a notebook that contained an entry resembling a chart, with headings including \u201cmurder them,\u201d \u201ckill them,\u201d \u201cstab them,\u201d \u201cmake them pay,\u201d and \u201crape him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant\u2019s highly concerning journal entries\u2026 suggest the defendant\u2019s interest in committing acts of violence against individuals or groups of individuals in the community,\u201d Bristow wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n

Several of the threats in the notebooks appear to include tally marks under them and repeated fragments of the word \u201cchurch.\u201d
\n\"\"The Bushwick church fire suspect\u2019s notebook.Photo via U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office\n<\/p>\n

The attorney\u2019s office wrote that Jones\u2019 alleged desire to burn down other churches is corroborated by parts of the journal.<\/p>\n

The violent references in the notebook and Jones\u2019 alleged confession factored into the prosecutors\u2019 decision to seek detention along with the minimum five-year prison sentence for the crime he\u2019s charged with, which could increase his flight risk. Prosecutors noted that Jones\u00a0 failed to show up for a Brooklyn court date and had a warrant issued for his arrest.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors noted that Jones lacks a stable place to live as a contributing factor to his flight risk. Jones was recently arrested in late June for damaging a television outside a Brooklyn restaurant. After being apprehended, he indicated to the police that he lived at a privately run homeless shelter in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Investigators allege in the criminal complaint for the arson charges that surveillance footage links Jones to the church at the time the fire was set, and shows him buying a lighter at a nearby store on Broadway before returning to church site before the fire started.<\/p>\n

Jones is accused of starting the June 19 fire that tore through the more than 160-year-old house of worship at 855-867 Bushwick Ave. The blaze destroyed the sanctuary and toppled the landmarked church\u2019s iconic steeple.<\/p>\n

With reporting by Anna Bradley-Smith and Susan De Vries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a letter to Eastern District of New York Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[51458,119017,98,119018,57100,100,99,119019,119020,71545,24536,119021,119022,119023,9,24,63,613,119024,105953,119025,119026],"class_list":["post-315499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-arson-investigation","tag-attempted-church-arson","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-church-fire","tag-brooklyn-crime-news","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-bushwick-arson-case","tag-confession-to-arson","tag-eastern-district-of-new-york","tag-federal-prosecutors","tag-homelessness-and-flight-risk","tag-john-jones-suspect","tag-magistrate-judge-peggy-kuo","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-pretrial-detention-request","tag-south-bushwick-reformed-church","tag-surveillance-footage-evidence","tag-violent-notebook-evidence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315499","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=315499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}