Homeless man, 49, leaves trail of destruction in spree targeting NYC Buddhist, Taoist temples: cops
A homeless man left a trail of destruction inside at least four Buddhist and Taoist temples across Lower Manhattan Tuesday, cops said.
Taihong Ouyang, 49, was slapped with hate crime criminal mischief and burglary charges for the destructive bender that included a stop at the Sung Tak Buddhist Association on Pike Street near East Broadway – where he allegedly smashed religious items with a fire extinguisher, cops and sources said.
During the Chinatown and Lower East Side spree, Ouyang also allegedly targeted the Guanyinsi – World Buddhist Center on Henry Street near Rutgers Street, where he damaged two security cameras, according to authorities and sources.
He also targeted the Pu Chao Buddhist Temple on Eldridge Street near Canal Street, cops said.
Ouyang was ended his spree just after 8 a.m. when he barged into the Huang Da Xian Taoist Temple on the Bowery near Pell Street and damaged a slew of items inside, cops said.
Someone called 911 to report the vandalism and Ouyang was tracked down and arrested, authorities said.
Ouyang is also accused of vandalism at two other locations – one on Canal Street near the Bowery, and the other at East Broadway near Market Street, where two front doors were damaged, sources said.
It's unclear whether those buildings are also houses of worship.
It also wasn't clear exactly when Ouyang began his spree, or why he targeted the temples.
Ouyang's arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday.
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CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia (AP) — About 2,000 people attended Cambodia's annual Day of Remembrance Tuesday to mark half a century since Cambodia's communist Khmer Rouge launched a four-year reign of terror that caused the deaths of about 1.7 million people. Some three dozen student actors from a Phnom Penh art school re-enacted brutalities under the Khmer Rouge, which held power from 1975-1979, when an estimated one-quarter of Cambodia's population was wiped out due to tortures, executions, starvation and misrule. The official ceremony honoring the victims of what a U.N.-backed tribunal judged to be genocide was held at Choeung Ek, site of a Khmer Rouge 'Killing Field' about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of the capital Phnom Penh. Several dozen Buddhist monks were among those attending. Garbed in black, the Khmer Rouge's standard attire, the performers acted as executioners, swinging bamboo sticks at the heads of victims whose arms were bound behind their backs. The re-enactment was held near a memorial displaying victims' skulls and mass graves where thousands of others were buried. 'When I come here, it reminded me, and I will never forget, this Khmer Rouge regime because it was extremely cruel and barbaric,' said 71-year-old Nhem Sovann, a Phnom Penh resident who said she lost six family members — her parents-in-law and two brothers and two sisters. She was put to work faming a rice field in the western province of Pursat. 'I saw with my own eyes that even children were taken and had their heads smashed against the trunk of a coconut tree,' she said, sobbing. For a younger generation, the 'Day of Remembrance' is a learning experience. Pen Kunthea, a 23-year-old art student who portrayed a government soldier who rescued fellow Cambodians from the Khmer Rouge as they were being chased from power in early 1979, said the more she performs, the more she learns. She said she first learned about the Khmer Rouge regime from her parents and from her studies, and that one of her uncles died from illness during the Khmer Rouge's time in power. 'I feel scared, and I think the Khmer Rouge made our people afraid and I don't want that regime to happen again,' Pen Kunthea said. 'When I perform, it makes me feel like I was in the middle of the story,' she said, adding that she was excited to be able to portray the history of the regime. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toll in harsh conditions until in 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighboring Vietnam. In 1984, a new Cambodian government installed by the Vietnamese declared May 20, the day the genocide was said to begin, to be a 'National Day of Hatred' for people to vent their anger against the Khmer Rouge and its backers. At the time the Khmer Rouge were still trying to regain power by fighting a guerrilla war from the countryside, only to be finally subdued in 1997. In 2018, the day was officially redesignated the National Day of Remembrance, with an emphasis on honoring the victims. In a statement issued Tuesday, Prime Minister Hun Manet urged all Cambodians join in preserving and protecting peace. 'Even though these tragic events have passed, and the Cambodian people have been living in peace, political stability, and full of development in all fields, we must not let go or forget this bitter past,' he said.
