Man busted for cracking apart concrete benches at LIU Brooklyn campus
Downtown Brooklyn has a split in the seat thanks to a vandal accused of smashing apart concrete benches outside Long Island University, police said Wednesday.
Concrete benches once found outside of the school of higher learning on University Plaza at Flatbush Ave. Extension was reduced to rubble earlier this month thanks to the efforts of a one-man wrecking crew, say cops.
Juan Velazquez, 53, was arrested on Feb. 10, hours after he was recorded busting up the benches, as well as a set of steps, with a piece of concrete he managed to lop off one of the seats, cops said.
Security guards saw Velazquez smashing the benches at about 12:30 p.m., but he ran off before cops arrived, police said.
He returned to continue his demolition work around 11 p.m. that night but cops, now armed with the recording of Velazquez’s handiwork, grabbed him and took him into custody on multiple counts of criminal mischief.
At arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Velazquez was released without having to post money bail. Under state law, the charges against him are not bail-eligible offense, officials said.
Velasquez lives in Fort Greene, about a mile from Long Island University’ Brooklyn campus. He’s been arrested multiple times before, including an incident on June 21, 2020 where he punched a man near the corner of Willoughby St. and Jay St. in downtown Brooklyn, prosecutors said.
Nearly two weeks after his arrest, the damage Velazquez inflicted on the quaint plaza had not been cleaned up. Students and pedestrians still had to navigate around the rubble.
Blinda Gonzalez, who lives nearby, said Velasquez has been wreaking havoc on the plaza for a long time.
“This is going on for at least two months. I haven’t seen him doing it lately, but I saw him when he started. It’s terrible,” said Gonzalez, 62.
Velasquez often unearthed rocks and stone slabs in the ground with sticks and then used them to bash up public space, she said.
“He throws (the rocks) and just lets it fall all over the place,” Gonzalez said. “I guess he’s just taking his anger out on the cement blocks. He’s obviously not well.”
Velasquez’s unauthorized re-design of the plaza had worsened before his arrest, the resident noted.
“There’s so much damage. He doesn’t do it under the cover of darkness. (He’s) quite bold,” she said. “I’m not understanding why security isn’t doing anything either because they’re on for 24 hours.”
An email to Long Island University for comment was not immediately returned.
