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Five Brooklyn boys charged with hate crimes after allegedly setting fire to Hasidic Jewish school bus in Crown Heights, NYPD says

Police arrested four more boys on Thursday in connection to a school bus fire in front of a Hasidic Jewish school in Crown Heights.

The four, an 11-year-old, 12-year-old and two 14-year-olds, have each been charged with a hate crime, police said. A fifth boy, 11, was arrested and charged on Monday.

The five boys are accused of setting the fire at about 6 p.m. Sunday as the bus was parked on Brooklyn Avenue, near the Hasidic Jewish school, Beth Rivkah, between near Lefferts and East New York avenues, cops said. 

Surveillance video of the incident, posted to crownheights.info, shows several children throwing what appears to be pieces of cardboard onto the yellow school bus. The flames start by the driver’s seat and spread toward the back of the bus.

None of the boys have been identified, but police said they are from Brooklyn. They were charged as minors with arson as a hate crime and criminal mischief as a hate crime, police said.