US authorities have arrested a man accused of setting fires at two Minneapolis mosques last week and charged him with arson, an act that the city’s police chief described as a “hate crime” aimed at instilling fear in the local Muslim community.
A federal complaint alleged that Jackie Little, 36, entered the Masjid Omar Islamic Center on 23 April wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a blue medical mask and lit a cardboard box on fire in the center’s second-floor bathroom. An employee reportedly chased Little out of the location.
A day later, Little – this time in a green hooded sweatshirt and black pants – went to the Masjid Al Rahma Mosque, where a fire soon erupted on the third floor, according to alleged surveillance footage and court documents.
Three men and about 40 children had to flee the building. A mosque representative estimates that the fire probably caused “tens of thousands of dollars in damage”, the complaint said.
Reviewing surveillance footage and past booking photos, police in Plymouth, Minnesota, identified Little, who had a “known history of arson or suspected arson” that included cases in December 2021 and May 2022. He also had “several documented incidents of domestic assault and other violent crimes”, according to the federal complaint.
Little’s mother told investigators that he had a “fascination with fire from a young age” and added that he “extensively harassed a Muslim female” when he lived in transitional housing, according to the federal complaint.
The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, told reporters that authorities assumed Little’s actions were “motivated by hate” and bias, though he added that the FBI continued to investigate the case. Police arrested Little while he was en route to a mental health facility.
Little appeared before a federal judge on Monday. Court records claimed that in January, Little spray-painted “500” on the front door of US congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s local office and photographed it. He later reportedly spray-painted the same graffiti on the vehicle of an unnamed Minneapolis police department officer who is Somali as well as at the entrance of the Somali Mall marketplace.
Omar confirmed she was targeted, thanking federal law enforcement who “helped bring this suspect to justice”.
The federal complaint also alleged that Little harassed Omar by emailing photographs of the graffiti as well as disturbing images.
It’s unclear what the significance of 500 may have been. A statement from Omar’s office from late 2021 about a bill that she co-authored aiming to monitor and combat Islamophobia noted that there had been about 500 documented complaints of anti-Muslim hate and bias that year.
“We are witnessing an epidemic of hate against the Muslim community and other religious minorities in Minnesota and globally right now,” Omar told CBS News. “This campaign of terror is designed to keep us fearful and divided. As Muslim Americans and as Minnesotans, we will not be terrorized.”
