Weapons Trove Suspect Is Linked to Hate Crimes

Weapons Trove Suspect Is Linked to Hate Crimes
By FERNANDA SANTOS and KAREEM FAHIM
Published: January 22, 2008

It all happened in less than three hours on a cool September night — a prolific spurt of anti-Jewish vandalism at more than a dozen locations in the heart of Brooklyn Heights.

On Monday, the police caught a break, arresting a man who they said had a trove of weapons inside a stately apartment building in the neighborhood. The man, Ivaylo Ivanov, admitted under videotaped questioning that he was behind the spree, which had mystified investigators for months, the police said.

And later Monday evening, after Mr. Ivanov’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, his lawyer surprised reporters with his own announcement: Mr. Ivanov is himself Jewish.

The revelation was the latest twist in a bizarre story that features a man who, police said, shot his own finger; a sizable weapons collection, including pipe bombs and a sawed-off shotgun, found in an apartment in one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive neighborhoods; and a prominent H.I.V./AIDS researcher and medical anthropologist, who owns the apartment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/nyregion/22arrest.html?ref=nyregion