A vagrant known to cops for having a lengthy rap sheet set ablaze the Fox News Christmas tree Wednesday outside a heavily patrolled, tourist-packed corner near Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, police and sources said.
The holiday display was set ablaze shortly after midnight and the flames quickly spread up the tree in Fox Square outside the Sixth Avenue and West 48th Street building that houses Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
The alleged firebug, Craig Tamanaha, 49, is facing a slew of charges including arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass.
He allegedly slipped into the artificial tree, used its metal frame like a ladder to climb up the structure and lit a piece of cardboard to start the blaze, police sources said.
A FOX security officer then tackled him to the ground before police, firefighters and arson investigators arrived on the scene, the sources said.
Tamanaha allegedly used a lighter and possibly accelerants to cause about $500,000 in property damage, police sources said.
“I think he wanted to get onto the news,” his father, Richard Tamanaha, of Hawaii, told The Post. “He wants attention.”
He added that his son has pulled destructive stunts in the past, is homeless and has a drug problem.
“Oh, he’s a nut. I can’t control him,” he said. “Mentally, he’s not all there.”
Now, he sometimes stays at hotels in Brooklyn and is known to hang out in the area, according to cops and his dad.
Cops said he was busted in March for criminal possession of a controlled substance and was arrested again for allegedly assaulting a police officer in June. He also has several other low-level arrests including for drug charges and criminal trespassing in Texas and Washington DC, according to police.
But Tamanaha — who was charged with six misdemeanors for torching the tree — may be back on the streets within hours due to lenient New York City bail reform policies and arson laws, according to a legal expert.
Under New York City law, arson is only considered a felony if the suspect harms or tries to harm a person or if the act is a hate crime, Mark Bederow, a Manhattan prosecutor turned criminal defense lawyer, told FOX News.
For a judge to set bail, Tamanaha would have to be charged with at least third-degree arson — a felony that qualifies as a hate crime, Bederow said.
“There’s no question that the legislature has got to reevaluate the nooks and crannies of the bail statute because it’s leading to absurd outcomes,” he told the station.
Police are also probing whether Tamanaha tried to pull the same stunt on the towering Norway Spruce in Rockefeller Center, according to cops.
The alleged firebug’s motive remains unclear, though he doesn’t appear to be affiliated with any political groups such as Black Lives Matter or Antifa, law enforcement sources said Wednesday morning.
“It’s an individual that’s known to us — he has a series of low level arrests and drug arrests,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said on WPIX. “He was issued some earlier this year — some appearance tickets and didn’t come back to court, which unfortunately is something we see all too often. He also has some low-level arrests out of state — I believe it’s Texas.”
“I think it’s definitely one where he’s working alone,” Shea added. “That’s what it appears. This is all very fresh … It’s probably a little preliminary to say what the motivation was — was mental illness a factor? We’re looking at all of that and we’ll probably have more to say.”
One law enforcement source blamed Big Apple policies allowing too many troubled mentally ill people to live on the streets.
“It’s just eight years of the [Mayor Bill] De Blasio grift and wasteful spending that let thousands of homeless, emotionally disturbed people roam the streets, left to their own devices,” the source said.
Footage from the scene shows smoke billowing from the Christmas tree, and photos from the scene show the fire charred most of the Christmas tree that was decked out in red, white and blue ornaments and topped with a red star.
Tamanaha was hunched over, wearing a mask and a navy blue sweatshirt as police brought him to Central Booking at around 10:20 a.m. Wednesday.
In 1988, he served as a private in the US Army and was a bright kid before his life took a turn for the worst, according to Richard Tamanaha.
“When he was young, he was very very smart. But then he was taking drugs, too, and it made him a little bit stupid,” he said. “Now, he can not hold a steady job.”
