Cops: Elmont firebomb linked to NYC cases?

New York City and Nassau County police are probing a suspected firebombing attempt Sunday night in Elmont that may be related to four firebombings in nearby sections of Queens the same evening, officials said.

A Nassau police spokesman said the incident on Glafil Street took place around 9:40 p.m. when a homeowner heard his living room window break and discovered a broken bottle on his front porch containing an accelerant. The substance did not ignite.

"When I walked outside the patio, that's when I smelled the gasoline, and I realized this was not an accident," Kissinger Rai, the homeowner, said Monday.

Rai, who lives at the Glafil Street home with his parents and brother, was taking a kitchen break from watching football when the loud bang startled him.

He saw a silver or champagne-colored two-door Honda speed away. At the time, his parents were asleep, he said, and his brother was also upstairs.

"Thank God everything is OK," said Rai, who works in the insurance industry. "God is always looking out. I always believe that."

The NYPD was looking at the four city incidents as being possible bias attacks because two of the structures targeted are used as places of worship. Garcia said there was no apparent religious significance to the Elmont address, which is within the Alden Manor section.

Rai said he did not know why his home would be targeted.

Nassau Police Det. Vincent Garcia called the device a "Molotov cocktail" and said its similarity to others used in the Queens incidents prompted police to consider a possible link to the city attacks. The city attacks took place in areas between three and five miles away from the Elmont address.

The incidents took place over a period of about three hours, between about 8 and 10:45 p.m. Sunday.

Monday, NYPD officials released a video of one of the city attacks and said they were looking for a suspect identified as a man between 25 and 30 years old, seen fleeing the scene in a light-colored four-door sedan. The suspect, identified as about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing about 200 pounds, was last seen wearing a black jacket and baseball cap.

In Elmont, the incendiary device hit the house with such force that it broke the window frame and the glass on the doublepaned window, Rai said. The bottle was thick, he said, and police told him it appeared to be a Starbucks Frappucino bottle.

Rai said his father was making temporary repairs to the window Monday and the family was planning to buy surveillance cameras for their home.

He said he is puzzled at the motive behind the incident. "I'm shocked," Rai said. "I'm basically wondering why it's happening. It's a quiet neighborhood. Why would they target my house?"

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.Meanwhile, city politicians roundly condemned the attacks, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg promising that the NYPD was "moving at full steam to investigate and also determine if there are any connections to incidents outside New York City."

One incident at 8:45 p.m. Sunday involved the firebombing of the front door of the Al-Khoei Foundation mosque at 89-89 Van Wyck Expressway.

"We are not afraid," said Maan As-Ahlani, minister of religion at the mosque, which wasn't damaged. "We are safe, police are here."

Another bombing two hours later involved a residence on 170th Street near 89th Avenue, sometimes used a place of Hindu meditation, said resident Ramesh Maharaj.

In a telephone interview, Maharaj, a Hindu priest from the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, said the device ignited on his front lawn and caused no damage to the house.

Police were able to get a video image of the attacker from his home system and seemed excited by what they saw, said Maharaj.

"I am concerned, not nervous," said Maharaj, 63. "I am too old to be nervous."

An attack at 8:10 p.m. on a Hillside Avenue residence caused some significant damage, said police. Also targeted at 8:00 p.m. was a deli at 179-46 Hillside Ave.