Suspect of Minneapolis mosques arson attack arrested

Earlier in the week, authorities had charged 36-year-old Jackie Rahm Little of Minneapolis with second-degree arson in connection with a fire Monday at Masjid Al Rahma Mosque in Minneapolis, at the Mercy Islamic Center, which contains the mosque in the 2600 block of S. Bloomington Avenue.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Little, whose whereabouts at the time were described as unknown. No information about the circumstances of the arrest was known early Sunday.

A day earlier, a fire broke out at the Masjid Omar Islamic Center, in the 24 Somali Mall in the Ventura Village neighborhood. The two mosques are less than a mile apart. O'Hara had said earlier that the department suspected the same person was responsible for that blaze.

The fires rattled Minnesota's Muslim community. At a news conference Tuesday, a dozen community leaders decried what many fear were attacks motivated by Islamophobia.

The complaint does not mention possible motives or whether anti-Muslim bias could have been a factor, but in Sunday's statement O'Hara called the fires "an attempt to inflict terror onto our Muslim community."

"Houses of worship should be safe places. Setting fire to a sacred facility, where families and children gather, is incredibly inhumane. And this level of blatant hatred will not be tolerated in our great city," he added.

O'Hara and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke at Friday's prayer at Masjid Al Rahma, where a couple hundred people had gathered.

According to the criminal complaint against Little for Monday's fire, surveillance footage shows Little entering the center carrying a bag with a gasoline can inside. Soon afterward, a staff member spotted a fire in the top floor hallway near some offices.

A melted plastic gas was found where the fire started, the complaint says.