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Former Bellerose cop charged with spray painting anti-Semitic graffiti: NYPD

By Kelsey Durham

A former police officer from Bellerose is facing hate crime charges after he was arrested and charged with spray painting anti-Semitic graffiti in 19 different locations around Brooklyn Saturday, the NYPD said.

Police in Borough Park, Brooklyn said they responded to the Bnos Zion Bobov School, at 5000 14th Ave., around 9 p.m. Saturday after receiving a report about pink anti-Semitic painting on a vehicle parked in front of the building. Cops later found 15 additional vehicles and three buildings within the 66th Precinct that also had been tagged with anti-Semitic messages on them, authorities said.

Following an NYPD investigation, 36-year-old Michael Setiawan of Bellerose was arrested Sunday and charged with 19 counts of criminal mischief as a hate crime, 19 counts of aggravated harassment as a hate crime and 19 counts of criminal mischief, police said.

Setiawan is a former officer out of the 69th Precinct in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn, the Associated Press reported. He served on the force until 2007, according to the wire agency, and his father told the AP that he did not know why Setiawan left the NYPD.

Reach reporter Kelsey Durham at 718-260-4573 or by e-mail at kdurham@cnglocal.com.