A man was arrested on the LIU campus in Brooklyn for smashing concrete benches.

Downtown Brooklyn was in rift over a vandal accused of smashing concrete benches near Long Island University, police said Wednesday.

Concrete benches were once found outside the Higher Education School on University Square on Flatbush Avenue. The annex was reduced to rubble earlier this month thanks to the efforts of a one-man emergency team, police say.

Juan Velázquez, 53, was arrested on Feb. 10, hours after he was recorded breaking benches as well as steps and managed to chop off one of the seats with a piece of concrete, police said.

Remains of destroyed stone benches on the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn.

Security guards saw Velasquez smashing the benches around 12:30 p.m., but he fled before police arrived, police said.

He returned to continue his demolition work around 11:00 pm that night, but the police, now armed with a recording of Velázquez’s work, grabbed him and took him into custody on multiple counts of criminal disorderly conduct.

Upon arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Velasquez was released without posting bail. The charges against him are not subject to bail under state law, officials said.

Remains of destroyed stone benches on the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn.

Velasquez lives in Fort Greene, about a mile from the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University. He has been arrested multiple times before, prosecutors say, including an incident on June 21, 2020, when he punched a man at the corner of Willoughby and J Streets in downtown Brooklyn.

Nearly two weeks after his arrest, the damage Velázquez had caused to the quaint plaza had still not been repaired. Students and pedestrians still had to navigate through the rubble.

Blinda Gonzalez, who lives nearby, said Velasquez has long been wreaking havoc in the square.

Remains of destroyed stone benches on the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn.

“This has been going on for at least two months. I haven’t seen him do it lately, but I saw him when he first started. It’s terrible,” Gonzalez, 62, said.

According to her, Velázquez often dug up stones and flagstones in the ground with sticks and then used them to break up public spaces.

“He throws (rocks) and just lets them fall all over the place,” Gonzalez said. “I think he’s just taking his anger out on the cement blocks. He is clearly unwell.”

According to a resident, Velasquez’s unauthorized redevelopment of the square worsened before his arrest.

“So much damage. He doesn’t do it under the cover of darkness. (He) is pretty brave,” she said. “I also don’t understand why the security service doesn’t do anything, because they work 24 hours.”

An email to Long Island University for comment was not immediately returned.

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