Richard Leslie Lloyd, 64, thought the convenient store was Muslim-owned.
A 64-year-old man was arrested and charged with first degree arson in Florida’s St. Lucie County for trying to set fire to a convenience store owned by an Indian American thinking that the store was owned by Muslims.
Richard Leslie Lloyd was arrested on Friday and he remains in jail on $30,000 bond, according to the county sheriff’s website.
The local Palm Beach Post reported that Lloyd told investigators that he assumed the store owner was Muslim and “it made him mad ‘due to what they are doing in the Middle East.’”
So far the police have identified the owners of the store only as “of Indian descent” without providing any details.
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Port St. Lucie is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, roughly 120 miles to the north of Miami and 120 miles to the southwest of Orlando.
“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Lloyd made the assumption that the store owners were Muslim when, in fact, they are of Indian descent,” the Post quoted Sheriff Ken Mascara as saying. “Regardless, we will not tolerate violence based on age, race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, homeless status, mental or physical disability.”
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The paper said “Lloyd will undergo a mental-health evaluation and the State Attorney’s Office will determine whether the act was an intentional hate crime.”
The Post said the arson incident occurred on Friday morning. “Deputies arrived to find that a dumpster had been rolled in front of the doors on the convenience store and set on fire,” it said.
Upon seeing police, Lloyd reportedly “put his hands behind his back and said ‘take me away,’” the paper quoted Mascara as saying. The fire was extinguished the county fire department.
The arson incident is the latest in a series of attacks on the lives and properties of Indian Americans since the November elections. In many cases, assailants mistakenly took the Indian Americans for Middle Easterners and Muslims.
Last month, in Olathe, Kansas, 32-year-old Indian American Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot dead and his friend Alok Madasani was wounded by a Navy veteran Adam W. Purinton, in an attack widely termed as a hate crime.
Harnish Patel fourth Indian American killed in South Carolina in 23 months (March 4, 2017)
A Sikh American was shot by a gunman in Kent, Washington, March 3.
The assailants in both cases told the victims to “Go back to your own country” before shooting them.
On March 2, Harnish Patel, a 43-year-old store owner in Lancaster, South Carolina, was found dead outside his house Thursday late-night.