The mosque that Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen attended was heavily damaged in an arson fire that Muslim leaders said was the latest incident in an escalating campaign of harassment and violence against the house of worship and its members.
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“This is a terrible tragedy”, Thompson told ABC News, “not only for the Islamic Center, but also for our community”. “If we could determine what was used then. that would give us an avenue to explore further evidence, like maybe through purchases or things like that”. Video from the surveillance camera published by local TV station CBS 12 shows a bright flash from the side of the building and then a man running away.
So far, investigators have determined the fire started from outside.
Thompson said investigators believe the fire was started on the steps leading to the east door and the door itself. “There was nothing inside and no burn patterns inside”.
Forty-nine people were killed and another 53 injured on June 12 when Mateen, a 29-year-old United States citizen of Afghan origin, opened fire on the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. He was himself killed in a police shootout.
“Right now, I don’t want to speculate on a motive, we all know the implications of the date and time of year this is, the 9/11 anniversary”, he said.
The fire at the mosque broke out at the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a holiday that is celebrated by sacrificing an animal.
Further, it was also only hours after the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Rahman said the mosque preached a peaceful message.
The night of September 5, surveillance video from the Islamic Community Center of Laurel, Maryland’s parking lot captured a white tractor-trailer backing into the mosque, pulling away and then backing into the mosque again.
Meantime there is a $5,000 reward offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this case.
Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the mosque and its worshippers have been harassed since the massacre.
Thompson said the sheriff’s office hasn’t received many phone tips after the agency released video and photographs of the suspected arsonist. They’ve received only eight tip calls – none have panned out.
But Thompson said investigators were not ready to make that call.
Authorities say the circumstances surrounding a fire at a Florida mosque suggest it could be a hate crime, but they are still trying to verify that.
The mosque had also been attended by Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, a Florida man who became the first known American suicide bomber in Syria. He left on a motorcycle with a low seat and high handlebars.
The motorcycle possibly had saddlebags, and the rider, described as white or Hispanic, wore jeans with some sort of embroidery on the back pockets.
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No one was inside the center when the fire was set, and photos shared by the sheriff’s office show that the building was still standing after the fire was extinguished.
