Christians Under Attack

Stanislav Shmulevich, 23, was confronted by detectives with a surveillance photo of himself leaving a Pace meditation room where the Muslim holy books were stored, police sources said.

He made "admitting statements" after seeing the photograph, a source said.

The suspect's roommate in Gravesend, Brooklyn, said she was stunned by the charges.

"It's impossible. He was defending the Koran," said Ola Petrovich, 24, an online saleswoman. "We had that conversation. He said, 'Don't criticize the Koran if you haven't read it.'

"Why would he do something so stupid?"

Shmulevich is suspected in two bias incidents at the school last fall.

On Oct. 13, a teacher discovered a paperback Koran in a toilet in a second-floor bathroom. On Nov. 21, a student found a submerged Koran in the same bathroom, cops said.

The suspect is a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to the U.S. as a boy. He's been splitting time between his Brooklyn flat and his parents' Staten Island home, and works at a European banking firm, Petrovich said.

Shmulevich was a senior at the university when he took "a break" only a few credits shy of a degree in international business, the roommate said.

"He read the Koran," she continued. "He was telling me, 'You should read it.' He's Jewish, but he's theologically sound. Both his parents are ballistic over this."

The suspect's father, Edward Shmulevich, 55, said he hadn't spoken to his son yet about the charges.

"He's a good son," the father said. "He's a hard worker and he's about to graduate from college. He works full time at night and then he goes to school. I'm surprised, utterly surprised. I don't know what happened."

Shmulevich was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on hate crime charges for criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, officials said.

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