A 64-year-old white man in Florida who wanted to “run the Arabs out of our country” is now in jail after setting fire to a convenience store he thought was owned by Muslims.
Richard Leslie Lloyd was arrested Friday at the scene of the fire, when he made no effort to flee after first vandalizing the storefront, and then eventually rolled a dumpster against the front of the building and set it ablaze.
“When the deputies arrived, they saw that the dumpster had been rolled in front of the doors and the contents were lit on fire,” Sheriff Ken J. Mascara said in a statement. “Upon seeing our deputies, the man put his hands behind his back and said ‘take me away.’”
He reportedly told investigators he was “doing his part for America,” and assumed the convenience store was owned by Muslims…who he is angry with “due to what they are doing in the Middle East.”
Sheriff Mascara’s statement continues:
“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Lloyd made the assumption that the store owners were Muslim when, in fact, they are of Indian descent. Regardless, we will not tolerate violence based on age, race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, homeless status, mental or physical disability.”
Lloyd is currently charged with first-degree arson, and will undergo a mental-health evaluation before the State Attorney’s Office makes a determination before possibly charging him with additional “hate crime” charges.
In recent weeks, there have been multiple attacks against people of Indian descent mistaken for Muslims by white nationalists and racists.
Two Indian men were shot inside a bar in Kansas last month by a man yelling “go back to your country.” One of the two was killed.
The following week a Sikh man was shot in his driveway in a Seattle suburb by a white man wearing a ski mask who said “get out of our country,” before shooting him and running away.
