Police have arrested a suspect in the fire that left a 100-square-foot hole in the roof of a Florida mosque occasionally attended by Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, WKMG reports.
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St. Lucie Sheriff’s deputies say tips from the community led to the Schreiber’s arrest Wednesday.
“The Facebook posts were evident that there’s anti-Islamic propaganda”, said Major David Thompson.
Joseph Schreiber, 32, of Fort Pierce was arrested after several tips to police identifying him as responsible for setting a fire late Sunday at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. “That brings the crime to a first degree felony”.
The FBI is investigating whether the attack included any federal civil rights violations.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader. Schreiber is considered a “prison release re-offender, ” and his criminal record includes armed robbery, according to Reuters.
Schreiber was still being questioned by investigators, Thompson said. No one was injured.
Mateen, who killed 49 people at the Orlando nightclub in June, had attended the mosque.
Schreiber admitted after his arrest to being involved in lighting the fire at the Florida mosque, according to a police affidavit, but told police that he had not meant to hurt anyone.
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 the attack was inspired by the Islamic State.
Florida Department of Corrections records obtained by the AP showed that Schreiber had been arrested twice before for theft and served a total of five years in prison for those crimes.
Mateen had attended the Fort Pierce Islamic Center since 2003, Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman told CNN earlier this year.
Officials revealed that surveillance video showing the suspect on a motorcycle also helped them connect the dots. He said Schreiber sometimes would say something against Muslims, but “we would tell him that’s not what we believe, that it is not godly”.
Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said attacks against the American Muslim community are becoming a daily occurrence.
“I guess he didn’t know where else to go”, Benson said, adding that Schreiber’s parents are “shocked, just like any of us would be if it were our child”. We never hear any stupid things coming out from anybody. In July, he said, someone punched a member in the face when he arrived for morning prayers.
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Hamaad Rahman, the mosque’s assistant imam, said the building will be rebuilt.
