A 27-year-old man accused of lighting up a series of cars in Freeport was arrested Sunday, released without bail by a Nassau County judge and then quickly turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to county officials. The weekend fires scorched vehicles in a municipal lot and left neighbors on edge.
Court records and investigators identify the suspect as Elder Lopez Avalos, charged with six counts of arson and accused of setting as many as 10 vehicles on fire across Nassau County, including several in Freeport’s Municipal Lot 1 and on Brookside Avenue, according to ABC7 New York. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that under current state law “Arson is not a bail eligible crime, instead this defendant is released on non-monetary conditions,” the outlet reports. County Executive Bruce Blakeman described Lopez Avalos as an undocumented immigrant and said the judge had “no choice” but to release him under the statute, the station adds.
How police say the fires were started
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said investigators tied the incidents together by a distinct pattern: someone would open a vehicle’s gas cap, shove a ripped T-shirt into the filler neck as a makeshift wick, soak it with gasoline and then light it. “He would pick an area where there is a group of cars, so it's almost like he wanted it to happen to the next one,” Ryder said, explaining how flames sometimes leapt from one vehicle to another, according to ABC7 New York.
Earlier blazes and the arraignment
Detectives say the weekend fires were connected to earlier vehicle blazes in Freeport, including one on the previous Saturday and two separate dates in June 2025, as part of the broader investigation, according to News 12. That outlet reported that officers arrived to find multiple cars fully engulfed in flames, and that Lopez Avalos was spotted near the scene and taken into custody without incident.
Legal and community fallout
Residents say they have been rattled by the string of fires and angered by the sequence of events that saw the suspect released by the court and then transferred into federal immigration custody. Federal guidance notes that when a person is taken into ICE custody, families and attorneys can use the ICE detainee locator or reach out to a local Enforcement and Removal Operations field office for information, according to USA.gov.
Lopez Avalos is facing six counts of arson, and officials say the investigation is still active. His case is being handled in First District Court in Hempstead, News 12 reports. Nassau County police are asking anyone with information or video related to the fires to contact investigators as they continue to piece together the case.
