NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- A 20-year-old Manhattan man was arrested Monday on hate crime and arson charges in connection two seperate incidents of LGBTQ Pride flags being set on fire outside the Harlem gay bar, Alibi Lounge in May, and then this past Monday.
Tyresse Singleton was charged with two counts of hate crime criminal mischief in the fourth degree and two counts of arson in the fifth-degree.
"It's difficult to think that it would happen again so soon,'' Minko said. "It was a lesson for everyone that, you know, there was no place for hate anywehere, especially not in Harlem- and then it happens again.''
NYPD had already been investigating a possible anti-gay bias crime after rainbow flags at the Harlem bar's entrance were set on fire just after midnight May 31, day before the start of the city's Pride Month celebrations.
"Sad to report that few weeks after the first incident, someone has once again set our pride flags on fire! We simply have no words!" said a post on Alibi Lounge's Instagram.