GOT FIREBUGS
How cops collared 2 in police van blaze
An undercover cop helped lead the feds to a man and woman who torched an NYPD van in Greenwich Village last month, prosecutors revealed Thursday.
Corey Smith, 24, and Elaine Carberry, 36, were caught on surveillance video setting fire to the homeless outreach van using an accelerant on July 15 at 4:35 a.m., according to a criminal complaint.
An undercover cop identified the pair after looking at the video footage, prosecutors said. The undercover knew Smith and Carberry, who live in Brooklyn, through “previous interactions,” according to the complaint.
The video showed Smith carrying a Patron tequila bottle as he walked toward the van with Carberry, said authorities.
Flames began to burn around the van and the pair walked away, prosecutors said. The couple returned minutes later and “a larger fire appeared to ignite at or around the NYPD van,” prosecutors wrote. The Patron bottle was found inside the van.
Recent criminal cases reveal the NYPD has embedded incognito cops and informants among protesters demanding criminal justice reform in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Smith and Carberry “deliberately set fire to an NYPD van, then minutes later returned to the vehicle and – once again using an accelerant – ensured its complete destruction. Thanks to the NYPD, the Fire Department, there was not further damage to life or property. The defendants are now in custody,” acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said.
The pair are charged with arson and arson conspiracy. The charges each carry a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a max of 20 years. The NYPD released video last month of four individuals wanted in connection with the incident. The investigation is ongoing.
Earlier this month, an informant paid by the NYPD identified a 24-year-old man who tried to cut the brakes on a cop car, prosecutors said.
Such clandestine practices are not new for the Police Department. The NYPD utilized undercover officers while monitoring protests in the wake of the killing of Eric Garner.
Undercover officers were also used to monitor the Black Panthers in the 1970s and Muslim communities following the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Setting a police car on fire endangers police officers, firefighters, and nearby residents and properties. These organized efforts are not a form of protest, they are crimes. They cost the taxpayer and damage the cause of those enraged in legitimate protest,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Lawyers for Smith and Carberry did not respond to inquiries.