The fire was set late Sunday night at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.
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A Florida judge has denied bond for the man accused of setting a Fort Pierce mosque on fire.
The man accused of setting fire to the mosque sometimes attended by Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was ordered held without bail Thursday after a judge called him a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Maj. David Thompson of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office told a news conference Schreiber was taken into custody on a street in Fort Pierce by authorities acting on tips from members of the community and aided by surveillance video.
Authorities said Schreiber has made anti-Islamic comments on his Facebook page. “Under Florida law, Schreiber will be charged with arson, and Florida’s hate crime enhancement will also be applied to the charge”.
Schreiber could face a 30-year minimum mandatory sentence or life in prison, Thompson said.
The FBI is continuing its investigation to see if Schreiber could face federal charges. No one was hurt in the fire; however, a 10-by-10 foot hole was burned through the mosque roof.
“During a post on Schreiber’s page dated July 12, he makes reference to “all forms of Islam as radical”, an investigator wrote”.
Surveillance video released to the public shows the arson suspect, with a bottle of liquid and what appears to be paper, touching off the blaze just after midnight on one of the holiest Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha.
At the time of the fire, which took place around the time of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, the building was unoccupied.
Mateen himself was killed by law enforcement officers at the end of the shooting in Orlando, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of the Atlantic coast town of Fort Pierce.
Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida (CAIR-Florida), responded to social media posts by Schreiber claiming to be a Jew who was “fighting back”.
Numerous arrests relate to relatively minor crimes, such as shoplifting, trespassing, battery, probation violation and larceny, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. Schreiber is considered a “prison release re-offender, ” and his criminal record includes armed robbery, according to Reuters.
The mosque has reported receiving multiple threats of violence and intimidation after reports that Mateen, who committed the deadliest mass shooting in USA history, sometimes attended. He said Schreiber attended his synagogue for about a month last spring to study the Torah, but left little impression, and gave no indication he might act violently in the future.
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“They were passing by throwing flowers on us”, he said. “They’re a community feeling under attack”.
