Part of a burnt wall is seen at the mosque that was attended by the Pulse nightclub gunman, who killed 49 people in Orlando on September 12, 2016 in Fort Pierce, Florida.
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Authorities say that unreleased surveillance footage from the scene shows a man walking up to the Fort Pierce Islamic Center at around midnight on Sunday, followed by a bright flash.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office has requested assistance from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as local and state firefighters.
There have been no reports of injuries and the extent of damage to the building is now being determined.
Surveillance video showed a white or Hispanic man riding up on a Harley Davidson-style motorcycle, Thompson said. Mateen, who lived in Fort Pierce, perpetrated the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history in June.
Mateen told police in a 911 call that he had pledged his allegiance to the head of the ISIS, though investigators do not believe he had any help from outside organizations.
The 29-year-old USA citizen of Afghan origin opened fire at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on June 12, killing 49 people and injuring 53 more. In June, The Washington Post reported that Mateen occasionally attended the mosque.
The blaze broke out just hours after the passing of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, three months after the Jun. 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and on the same day as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
But Thompson said investigators were not ready to consider it a hate crime despite the overwhelming evidence.
One of the mosque’s attendees told CNN that the Fort Pierce Islamic Center was “like any other mosque”. “Is that related? I wouldn’t want to speculate but that’s in the back of all our minds”.
“There is nothing that he is hearing from me to do killing, to do bloodshed, to do anything, because we never talk like that”, the imam said of Mateen.
The mass shooting was the deadliest in modern USA history.
Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida spokesman Wilfredo Amr Ruiz said the arsonist was “terrorising our community because we don’t know where he is at and we don’t know what he is capable of doing”. In July, a member was beaten outside the mosque.
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Ever since the attack at Pulse nightclub, which also wounded 53 people, the Orlando, Fla., area has been coming to terms with the events of that June night.
