Police are searching for a suspect who was caught on camera setting a police car on fire outside of a Lauderhill synagogue late Wednesday night.
The incident happened just before midnight outside the Synagogue of Inverrary-Chabad, located at 6700 Northwest 44th Street.
Surveillance footage showed a suspect dousing the police cruiser with a liquid from a yellow container before setting it on fire.
The entire car became engulfed in flames as the suspect ran from the scene. No injuries were reported. The car was towed away after the fire was put out.
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"Such acts should not be tolerated, they shouldn’t happen," said Rabbi Levi Chanowitz. "It’s unfortunate that somebody chose to do this."
Now police have launched an arson investigation.
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"It’s one of those things that if they’re doing that to police cars, we have to take this extremely serious. And also because of the location at the synagogue," Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Santiago said.
Santiago said there had been some vandalism at the synagogue a week earlier, and they had placed one of their older cars in the parking lot as a deterrent.
"At this time there’s nothing to indicate that that those two incidents are related. But detectives are looking into both," Santiago said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
