Man on probation for fire at homeless shelter now charged with arson at St. Paul mosque

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
Updated ·4 min read
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A 42-year-old man charged Friday with arson at a mosque in St. Paul this week was already on probation for a fire at a homeless shelter.

After his Wednesday arrest in the mosque fire, Said Murekezi told ATF investigators he is Muslim and “said that he burned the building as a form of protest, because of other Muslims in the community having to sleep outside in the cold,” according to a criminal complaint. “He said that the building is not serving anyone, but the people need it.”

The fire at Tawhid Islamic Center of Minnesota at Dale Street and University Avenue occurred Wednesday morning. No one was injured. The mosque was under construction as it was being remodeled.

Police arrested Murekezi on Wednesday night. He was found with a substance that later tested positive for methamphetamine, the complaint said.

When he was arrested in 2020 in the fire at a St. Paul homeless shelter, he was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

Murekezi told Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents after his Wednesday arrest that, if he hadn’t been caught, he would have burned a specific mosque in St. Paul and an unknown mosque in Mankato, and he said “the mosque arson was just one of many ideas on how to bring about change,” the complaint said.

He said he wanted “to inspire others to commit acts of terrorism such as going to the Mall of America, and burning a store, and setting off a bomb where there are no people,” the complaint continued. “He stated people may get hurt or killed with these ideas, and that it would be messed up. He stated that he hates terrorism, but he is becoming one (a terrorist).”

Murekezi also said “if he were in a government building that is burnable, he will “burn that (expletive) down” because the government isn’t doing enough for homelessness,” the complaint said.

How investigation unfolded

After Wednesday’s fire, investigators obtained video surveillance from the area and saw a person entered the mosque through a window on the south side of the building about 8:30 a.m. that day. The window appeared to be broken or open.

At 8:40 a.m., video showed the suspect on the east side of the building and smoke was visible coming from that side of the mosque about one minute later.

Investigators captured a photo of the suspect from the video. An ATF supervisor requested the Hennepin County sheriff’s office use facial recognition technology in an attempt to identify the person, and the sheriff’s office developed a possible match to Murekezi, the complaint said.

After police arrested Murekezi, ATF agents interviewed him and he said he’d set the fire, the complaint said. He said he broke into the building on Tuesday and stayed there overnight, looking for things to burn.

“He further stated that what he did was ‘fun’ and he made sure there was no one else inside the building when he started the fires,” the complaint said.

The mosque’s director reported the building was last used as a place of worship in 2021 and has remained in use as mosque office space.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged Murekezi, also known by the last name Ntamugabumwe, on Friday with second-degree arson, burglary of a religious building and possession of meth. “There was no evidence to connect this incident to a crime of bias,” said Dennis Gerhardstein, county attorney’s spokesman.

Past arson and other cases

In August 2020, firefighters responded to an alarm in downtown St. Paul at Mary Hall, a shelter for homeless adults. Firefighters found a small fire burning in Murekezi’s room.

He “was agitated and denied them entry into the room and threatened to jump out of the fourth floor window,” according to a criminal complaint filed in April 2021. When firefighters got in the room, they found a pile of burning clothes and determined the fire was intentionally set with a lighter.

He pleaded guilty last May and was sentenced in November to 18 months in prison, which was stayed. His sentence also included 320 days in the Ramsey County workhouse, which he’d already served, and one-year probation.

Murekezi was back in court in March for a probation violation and was ordered to serve 30 days in the workhouse, with credit for 10 days already served.

On Monday, Murekezi was in Hennepin County court and pleaded guilty in other cases. He was charged in December with using a broom to break a restaurant window in the 5000 block of Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis.

He received a 13-month prison sentence, which was stayed, and 43 days in the Hennepin County workhouse, which he’d already served. He was put on probation for three years.

Murekezi also pleaded guilty Monday to fifth-degree drug possession. In September, Metro Transit officers said they saw a man urinating at the U.S. Bank Stadium light rail station and arrested him. It was Murekezi and he was found with a crystal-like substance in a baggie, which testing showed was methamphetamine, according to a criminal complaint. He was sentenced to 102 days in the Hennepin County workhouse, which he’d already served.

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