NEW YORK (AA) – A suspect was arrested Wednesday on arson-related charges involving an Islamic complex in Florida, officials said.
Joseph Michael Schreiber, 32, is facing at least 30 years in prison as a repeat offender and “could ultimately be sentenced” to life in prison for setting ablaze the Fort Pierce Islamic Center on Friday night, David Thompson of St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office told reporters.
Officials said they were on the lookout for potential co-conspirators.
Schreiber was questioned Wednesday and charged with second-degree arson that was upgraded to a first degree felony that includes “hate crime enhancement” under Florida law, which does not have a hate crime provision.
Michael D’Alonzo, an FBI agent cooperating with the sheriff’s office, said at a press conference that the agency was looking into potential “civil rights violations” to charge the suspect on a federal level, including a hate crime.
Schreiber was arrested in Fort Pierce after tips from the public, including members of the Muslim community, matched surveillance footage that was earlier released by the sheriff’s office.
A search of the suspect’s house revealed evidence that linked him to the crime, including the motorcycle the suspect in the video was seen riding.
Schreiber has also posted anti-Islamic messages online that “corroborates our fear that it does have to do with hate to the Islamic community,” according to officials who did not elaborate on past crimes committed by the suspect that qualified him as re-offender that exacerbates his criminal punishment.
The sheriff’s office shared a video Monday that showed a “lone individual either of white or Hispanic ancestry” disembark from a “Harley Davidson-style motorcycle” and enter the mosque complex made up of several buildings, some of them wooden, just before midnight.
He then started a fire near the center of the complex, potentially by using a bottle of fluid he carried with him, causing “substantial damage to the mosque — both the interior and the exterior,” Thompson said.
The Fort Pierce Islamic Center came to national attention after Omar Mateen, who frequented the mosque, allegedly killed 49 victims and wounded dozens at a gay nightclub in Orlando in June.
Mateen pledged allegiance to the Daesh terror group on an emergency 911 call before being shot dead by police inside the club.
