(St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office via AP).
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The judge also asked Schreiber if he could afford a lawyer, to which Schreiber replied “Absolutely not”.
Numerous arrests relate to relatively minor crimes, such as shoplifting, trespassing, battery, probation violation and larceny, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.
The fire happened not long after people left the mosque after breaking a voluntary fast, said Wilfredo Ruiz, mosque spokesman and communications director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida.
A former inmate said a man accused of setting fire to a Florida mosque is a “couple cans short of a six pack”.
Schreiber also “made remarks indicative of prejudicial rhetoric associated to Islamic extremists”.
Times of Israel reports that Rabbi Bruce Benson was outside of Schreiber’s home during the arrest.
Sheriff’s investigators say a man accused of setting fire to a Florida mosque confessed and said he was embarrassed.
Police matched Joseph Michel Schreiber, 32, to the man in the surveillance video who carried the bottle of arsenal into the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.
Schreiber, who was being held without bond, was still being questioned by police following his arrest. A public defender was appointed to Schreiber temporarily.
If convicted, Schreiber faces a minimum 30-year prison sentence. In a first appearance before a judge Thursday, the court said “there is no condition of release that could protect the community” and there are serious concerns that he’s a flight risk.
St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputies arrested Schreiber on Wednesday, saying he set the Sunday night fire at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce.
Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded, making it the worst mass shooting in modern USA history.
Joseph Michael Schreiber, 32, was arrested on arson and hate crime charges on Wednesday, three days after police say he began the blaze that badly damaged the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce on one of the holiest Muslim holidays, as well as the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
A Facebook page apparently belonging to the suspect, established under his name with photos resembling his booking photo, include a message posted on July 12 that said “ALL ISLAM IS RADICAL, and should be considered TERRORIST AND CRIMANALS” written in capital letters with several misspellings.
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Thompson said 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 taken from the mosque and elsewhere.
