A man wanted for defacing FDNY property with hateful messages was caught by fire marshals over the weekend while committing a similar offense, officials said.
Jem R. Ibrahimov, 42, was apprehended by fire marshals around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday near the Engine 93/Ladder 45/Battalion 13 firehouse on West 181st Street in upper Manhattan, according to fire officials.
“I commend our fire marshals for their great investigative work to apprehend an individual who defaced FDNY facilities and apparatus with hateful symbols and language,” FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. “Thank you as well to the members of the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force for their investigation and collaboration with our fire marshals.”
Police had been searching for Ibrahimov in connection with at least two incidents of graffiti found scrawled on the firehouse as well as on nearby FDNY vehicles and an EMS station.
Today multiple #FDNY ambulances were vandalized in Manhattan. Fire Marshals and @NYPDnews are asking for assistance to identify this individual. Please call 718 722 3600. pic.twitter.com/Ssh4Nu9U9O
— FDNY (@FDNY) August 26, 2018
Cops were first called to the Engine 93/Ladder 45/Battalion 13 firehouse around midnight on Aug. 26 after someone wrote “Nazi pigs die” in black marker on the garage door, according to police.
Several hours later, around 7:30 a.m., the phrase “Nazi pigs” and swastikas were discovered on the sides of four FDNY ambulances and an FDNY communications van that were parked less than a dozen blocks away near 501 W. 172nd St., police said.
Ibrahimov, of Manhattan, was charged with aggravated harassment, criminal mischief as a hate crime, making graffiti and possessing graffiti instruments, according to police.
