NYPD Chief Dermot Shea, meanwhile, thanked hate crime investigators and civilian tipsters - including some who reached out to - for clinching the collar. “He stated in substance that he was responsible for burning the flags, and that his actions were motivated by bias and animus against the LGBT community,” the criminal complaint against Singleton says. Once in custody, Singleton told an NYPD Bias Incident Investigations detective that it was him.

Singleton ‘fessed up to investigators that he twice targeted the Seventh Avenue gay bar - first on May 31, when he lit up two LGBT flags hanging on a pole outside, and then again July 8, when he set fire to another flag hanging in the same spot. Cops release footage of man torching Harlem gay pride flagĪrrested Tuesday in the caught-on-video predawn fires, Tyresse Singleton, 20, now must face felony charges of arson and criminal mischief as a hate crime.