Cops: Hate crime charge after mosque incidents

Officers conducting surveillance at a Huntington mosque Tuesday night arrested a Centerport man after he threw a glass bottle onto the driveway of the house of worship, police said.

As part of an ongoing investigation of vandalism incidents at the Masijid Noor Inc. Mosque on Park Avenue, hate crimes unit detectives, along with Second Precinct crime section officers, were at the location at 7:16 p.m. when Stephen Pratt, 55, of 700 Washington Dr., tossed the bottle from his vehicle, Suffolk County police said in a Wednesday news release.

Pratt was charged with second-degree harassment in the incident. He also was charged with criminal mischief fourth degree as a hate crime "for throwing a container of white concrete sealer into the driveway of the mosque" on New Year's Eve, police said.

He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at First District Court in Central Islip.