By Hank Russell
In response to the violent attack in Colorado, the Suffolk County Police Department announced it was stepping up its security at local places of worship.
On June 1, a man was arrested for allegedly attacking a group of people at the Run for Their Lives rally in Boulder, Colorado. According to reports, he allegedly set 12 people on fire using a Molotov cocktail and a spray bottle filled with an accelerant and yelled “Free Palestine.” One of the victims was a Holocaust survivor. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted hate crime charges.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine and Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said they are “monitoring the situation and will continue to share information with our law enforcement partners.”
Romaine and Catalina said that the department “has increased our presence” around local houses of worship and religious institutions, adding they have not received any information of threats similar to what happened in Colorado.
“Anti-semitism cannot be tolerated, and the men and women of Suffolk’s law enforcement community will continue to do all it can to protect every resident in this county,” Romaine and Catalina said in a joint statement.