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Fire Investigated as Arson at Florida Mosque Orlando Nightclub Gunman Had Attended Arson Suspected at Mosque That Orlando Nightclub Gunman Attended
(about 5 hours later)
A fire broke out on Monday at the Florida mosque where Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed dozens of people at an Orlando gay nightclub in June, had worshiped, and investigators are treating the incident as arson. The members of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce had broken their fasts and left the mosque near Florida’s eastern shoreline. In the waning minutes of Sunday, less than an hour later, a surveillance camera recorded a man as he approached the mosque. Then came a flash as flames damaged the house of worship where the man who attacked an Orlando, Fla., nightclub often prayed.
A spokesman for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, Bryan Beaty, said investigators were scrutinizing surveillance video showing someone approach the east side of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. The video showed a flash and flames appearing and the person running away. The authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were investigating the fire as a potential hate crime, even as officials cautioned that they remained uncertain about the motive for the blaze, which came on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and nearly three months after Omar Mateen opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It also happened around the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday.
Two people — a neighbor and a passer-by — called 911 at about 12:30 a.m. to report the fire, which could be seen coming out the roof, Mr. Beaty said. “Today was supposed to be a day of this community exchanging gifts with their kids, visiting their family members, having dinners, having lunches,” Wilfredo Ruiz, a spokesman for the mosque, said at a Monday afternoon news conference in Fort Pierce, Fla. “Instead, they needed to go to another place to worship.”
When firefighters arrived around six minutes later, about a quarter of the mosque was thick with smoke and engulfed with flames, Catherine W. Chaney, a spokeswoman for the St. Lucie County Fire District, said. It was extinguished by about 5 a.m., the sheriff’s department said. No one was injured in the attack, and the St. Lucie County sheriff’s office sought help identifying the suspect, whom the authorities described as a white or Hispanic male. Video showed the man arriving at the mosque, which is housed in a former Presbyterian church, about 11:38 p.m. on Sunday, appearing to carry paper and a bottle of some type of liquid.
No one was in the building at the time, and there were no injuries, the officials said. The camera recorded a flash, presumably when the fire ignited, and the man waved his arms, perhaps from a burn, before he fled on a motorcycle. Officials refused to speculate about a connection between the fire and the anniversary of the terrorist attack.
With the investigation at its earliest stages, motive remained to be determined. Mr. Beaty declined to comment on whether investigators believe the fire was set because of Mr. Mateen’s connection with the mosque. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office, Bryan Beaty, declined to discuss whether Mr. Mateen’s ties to the mosque might have prompted this week’s fire.
“It has been widely publicized that he did attend here at one time,” Mr. Beaty said, but he added: “We do not want to speculate.” With its painted star and crescent, palm trees and occasional protester outside, the Sunni mosque is central to Islamic life in Fort Pierce, a city of around 44,000 people about an hour’s drive north of Palm Beach. Yet it has also been a hub of controversy, drawing attention twice in recent years as a place where young men who staged attacked had worshiped.
The sheriff’s office released surveillance video to ask the public’s help in identifying the suspect, who was described as a white or Hispanic male. The man arrived on a motorcycle at approximately 11:38 p.m., apparently carrying paper and a bottle of some type of liquid. In addition to Mr. Mateen, who was killed during the siege at Pulse nightclub that left 49 other people dead, the Islamic Center was a frequent stop for Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who carried out a 2014 suicide bombing in Syria. (The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said the men knew each other “casually.”)
The video shows him approaching the building and a large flash is seen, presumably when the fire ignited, the sheriff’s office said. The man waves his arm around, possibly from a burn, and then runs away. In June, the Islamic Center’s imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, distanced himself and the mosque from Mr. Mateen and, more generally, from extremist ideology.
The fire in Fort Pierce is at least the third suspected arson at a Florida mosque this summer. A Tampa mosque was targeted twice in less than 24 hours last month, and a spokesman for the city’s fire department said Monday that the inquiry there remained active. “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 Mr. Mateen.
“It’s an open arson case,” the Tampa spokesman, Jason Penny, said. “At this point, we’re really relying on any information that the public may have.” The mosque, like many in the United States, has expressed concerns about security and the commitment of the local authorities to protect its members and property. Tensions mounted in July after the authorities arrested a 25-year-old man they said repeatedly punched someone who had been at the Islamic Center to pray. The case is pending in the local circuit court, where a prosecutor said in a filing last month that the accused man had “evidenced prejudice” during the attack.
The Fort Pierce fire broke out on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Maj. David Thompson of the sheriff’s office said in a statement that he did not want to speculate on whether there was a link. Mr. Beaty said that deputies had also investigated two suspicious vehicles and a harassing phone call at the mosque since the June 12 attack in Orlando.
“Certainly that is in the back of our minds,” Mr. Thompson said, referring to the Sept. 11 anniversary. He said that deputies had planned to provide some assistance at the center, adding “The folks here are peaceful; this is a horrible tragedy.” The fire at the Islamic Center is at least the third suspected arson at a Florida mosque this summer. A Tampa mosque was targeted twice in less than 24 hours last month, and a spokesman for the city’s fire department, Jason A. Penny, said Monday that the inquiry there remained active.
It also took place at the start of the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha. On its Facebook page, the Islamic Center described the episode as “an arson attack” and suggested another mosque for worship. In Fort Pierce on Monday, people responded to the attack with a mix of outrage and sadness.
Mr. Mateen fatally shot 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando before being killed by police officers who stormed the club. “An attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship,” said Ahmed Bedier, a Muslim activist in Florida. “It’s unacceptable.”
The mosque, a former church that is a hub of Muslim life in working-class Fort Pierce, sits along a busy two-lane road. It attracts attention for its painted star and crescent, as well as its palm trees and the occasional protester.
The mosque has been scrutinized repeatedly, but most closely for its ties to Mr. Mateen, who was known around the Islamic Center as being quiet. It has also been associated with a Florida man who carried out a suicide bombing in northern Syria.
After the siege at Pulse in June, the imam at the Islamic Center insisted that the mosque’s teachings could not have radicalized Mr. Mateen.
“There is nothing that he is hearing from me to do killing, to do bloodshed, to do anything because we never talk like that,” said the imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman.
Others who had known Mr. Mateen at the mosque also distanced themselves from extremism, according to interviews conducted in June after the nightclub attack.
One man said that he had even reported Mr. Mateen to the authorities after Mr. Mateen acknowledged listening to messages by Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric whose teachings have had profound, radicalizing effects on some young Muslims.
“It was something he said he had done,” the man, Mohammad Malik said. “That was the red flag.”