A 30-year-old Sarasota resident was arrested Friday for allegedly throwing a brick through a local synagogue window in what police describe as an intentional hate crime against the Jewish community.
The Sarasota Police Department confirmed the arrest of Brayton Laschinger following an investigation into the Wednesday morning incident at the Chabad of Downtown SRQ.
Surveillance footage from around 6:00 a.m. showed a suspect wearing a blue towel over his head as he approached the building and threw a brick through the glass. Laschinger’s roommate later assisted detectives in identifying him from the video.
According to investigators, Laschinger confessed to the act and attributed his actions to online content he had viewed earlier that day.
“Laschinger claims that the same morning he saw propaganda on social media and that was making him mad,” police said in a statement. “He admitted to detectives that he threw the brick at the window of the synagogue because it was a Jewish place of worship.”
Laschinger now faces a felony charge of criminal mischief to a religious building, charged as a hate crime. Repair estimates for the damaged window exceed $5,000.
The incident occurs amid a national rise in reported antisemitic attacks over the past three years following the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the war in Gaza. Similar incidents in Florida include a prior arson attack that damaged a children’s classroom at the Chabad of Charlotte County in Punta Gorda.
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