The arsonist was allowed to escape.
A Brooklyn man who allegedly set fire to a Bushwick apartment last month, injuring nine residents, was released without bail this week and is already terrorizing residents of his former neighborhood, The Washington Post has learned.
Stanley Garcia, 63, was arrested by police on Wednesday and charged with a string of arson counts for allegedly starting the July 16 fire on Evergreen Street.
Brooklyn prosecutors had asked for $20,000 bail at Thursday’s arraignment, but Judge Christopher Whitehair gave Garcia probation without bail.
Even under New York state’s controversial 2019 bail reform law, the top charge against Garcia, second-degree arson, is eligible for bail.
Garcia’s lawyer declined to comment and prosecutors did not return calls, but said he was sorry for neighbors who lost their homes in the fire.
“I was on Knickerbocker Street and I saw the guy,” said Evelyn Garcia, who lived on the third floor before the fire. “I was traumatized. I was traumatized enough to call the police multiple times and they said they were going to send someone.”
“And in the end, they didn’t send anybody,” she said.
Stanley Garcia, described by neighbors as a longtime nuisance, is accused of setting the fire around 3 a.m.
According to court documents released after his arrest, he actually tried to block the door with his body to stop building residents from escaping the fire he had started, but the residents were able to push him aside and escape.
“He’s crazy,” local resident John Palma told The Washington Post after the fire. “All the neighbors in that building have been complaining about this guy. He’s been here for about a year, they keep calling the police, they come and take him away, only to have him brought back again.”
A resident of the building at 127 Evergreen Street said he and his cousin caught Garcia for starting the fire and confronted him, but Garcia lunged at them and they fell to their deaths.
However, the arsonist is said to have returned to the building screaming before eventually fleeing.
Police called in his arrest and found him on Wednesday.
Judge Whitehair, who released him, He was appointed to the city’s Criminal Court by Mayor Eric Adams. In May, he left the ultra-liberal legal group Queens Defenders after 15 years there.
“Put him back in jail or at least help him get there because he almost killed people,” another resident said. “Family, kids.
“Because of him, I have to go to therapy, as do my mother, my brother and my four-year-old son,” they say. “We have to use pumps, like air pumps. It’s as if I was perfectly healthy and now I have asthma.”
