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Ron Carr, 34, of Manchester, scrawled Nazi symbolism on more than a dozen homes, residential fences and elsewhere, targeting Jewish residents in the early hours of Wednesday, June 7, according to Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer.
Carr damaged more than a dozen homes, and used an accelerant to set a fire that destroyed a house in the township’s Pine Lake Park section around 3:10 that morning, authorities said.
Carr was charged with 36 criminal counts, including charges of Bias Intimidation, Aggravated Arson, Arson and Criminal Mischief, Platkin and Billhimer said.
Police responding to reports of a house fire found Carr, who matched the description of the suspect in the criminal mischief incidents, and had been captured on security-camera footage.
He was found near Commonwealth Boulevard and Larchmont Street and taken into custody.
One house was destroyed in the fire, while three others suffered heat damage and flames spread to a wooded area behind the house. No injuries were reported.
Carr was being held in a medical facility as of Friday morning, and will be transported to the Ocean County Jail in Toms River pending his detention hearing.
“This crime spree and the antisemitism that it expressed caused pain, destruction, shock and fear among the residents of Manchester Township,” Platkin said. “No community in the State of New Jersey should feel vulnerable or anxious in the face of acts of intolerance. No resident should feel their personal safety or their home is threatened by bigotry, persecution and violence."
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