Woman Ignited Gay Pride Flag, Damaging SoHo Bistro, Police Say
nytimes.comA woman set fire to a restaurant in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood early Monday by igniting a gay pride flag hanging on the business’s facade in an act of arson that was being investigated as a possible hate crime, the police said.
The fire, at Little Prince on Prince Street, occurred shortly after 1:35 a.m., the police said. Security-camera footage released publicly as part of the investigation shows a white SUV stopping in front of the restaurant and waiting while a woman gets out, approaches the building, pulls out a lighter and touches it to a rainbow-colored flag.
After igniting the flag, the woman hops back into the passenger side of the vehicle, which drives west on Prince Street, the police said.
The restaurant was closed at the time, and no one was injured in the fire, the police said. It caused minor damage to the facade and none to the interior.
