NEW YORK | A man was arrested Wednesday evening after entering New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral with two cans of gasoline and lighters, police said, days after the fire that damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris .
The arrested man claimed he took a shortcut through the cathedral after his car ran out of gas, but his responses were “inconsistent and elusive,” the New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy commissioner reported , John Miller.
–
–
He was to be presented to a judge to serve him on three counts: attempted arson, endangering life and breaking and entering, another police spokesperson said on Thursday. afternoon.
“We don’t know what his state of mind was, what his motivation was,” John Miller said at a press conference on the steps of the Cathedral, a neo-Gothic structure in the heart of Manhattan.
The man was confronted by a security guard who asked him where he was going and informed him that he could not enter the cathedral with these items, according to the police.
–
–
“At that point, gasoline apparently spilled on the floor as he turned around,” Miller said. Alerted, officers from the NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau caught up with him and arrested him after questioning.
“He said he was driving through the cathedral … his car was out of gas,” Miller said. “We looked at his vehicle. There was no shortage of gasoline and he was arrested, ”he said.
The 37-year-old man was “known to the police,” who are looking at his background. A resident of New Jersey, he taught philosophy at Lehman College, a New York university.
–
–
According to several media, he had in his possession a one-way ticket to Rome, the departure of which was scheduled for Thursday.
Construction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral was completed in 1878, extensions have been added over the years, and a major restoration was completed in 2015 for the visit of Pope Francis.
–
–
A fire caused immense damage on Monday to the Gothic Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, one of the most visited monuments in the world.
Investigators favor the accidental track while renovation work was underway in the Parisian cathedral.
–
