Suspect Ray Lazier Lengend, escorted from the 103rd Prencinct station house last night, allegedly waged a firebombing campaign because of petty grievances. (Jon Hyde)
It wasn’t a hate crime — it was pure revenge.
A deranged Queens man confessed yesterday to a series of Molotov-cocktail attacks on New Year’s Day, telling cops he was hellbent on getting even for perceived slights at each target, sources told The Post.
During a fiery rampage that stretched from 8 p.m. to 10:15 p.m., the alleged firebomber, Ray Lazier Lengend, got back at a Jamaica Islamic center for not letting him use the bathroom, settled two personal beefs, and took out his frustration on a deli owner who caught him shoplifting.
But a fifth target was a mistake. Lengend, 40 and unemployed, had the wrong address for a crack dealer he was allegedly after.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the suspect had “made statements implicating himself in each of the five firebombings.”
Lengend was charged with five counts of possessing an explosive, four counts of arson and one count of arson as a hate crime for allegedly making anti-Muslim statements in reference to the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center.
Four of the five targets were struck with crudely made Molotov cocktails fashioned out of Starbucks Frappuccino bottles, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Lengend, a former tow-truck driver, used a beer bottle to launch a firebomb that damaged a house on 107th Avenue.
A source added that a security camera at a BP station on Atlantic Avenue caught the suspect filling bottles with gas Sunday night while pretending to fill up his car’s tank.
Lengend was picked up at 7:50 a.m. yesterday by two detectives from the 103rd Precinct.
The cops tracked him down thanks to Virginia license plates on a car spotted near at least two of the attack scenes, sources said.
Police said Lengend stole the gray Buick from an Avis lot at JFK Airport after the agency refused to rent it to him.
Sources said Lengend has an extensive rap sheet in the city and on Long Island for offenses that include grand larceny, weapons possession, check-kiting and crack possession.
His alleged fire rampage included the Elmont, LI, home of Bejai Rai, 77, whom he had long tormented.
“He called me once when I was in Florida and told me I was interfering in his life,” said Rai, whose home was the last target hit Sunday night.
“He said he was going to get someone” to bump me off, Rai said.
Additional reporting by Ikimulisa Livingston