A Muslim – who told a friend “that homosexuals should be exterminated” – attempted to exterminate 750+ people in a jam packed gay nightclub and the prosecutors let him off with 5 years prison? via Man pleads guilty to setting fire at Capitol Hill club on New Year’s Day | KOMO News. (KOMO doesn’t identify him as Muslim or the club as gay) h/t WildNinja
SEATTLE — A former Bellevue resident who
federal prosecutors say set fire to a packed Seattle nightclub just
after midnight on New Year’s Day pleaded guilty Friday to a count of
arson, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said.
Masmari carried a one gallon tank of gas
hidden in a shopping bag into the Neighbours club in Seattle’s Capitol
Hill neighborhood around 11:30 p.m. as 750 partygoers were inside,
according to prosecutors. Then just after midnight, Masmari poured some
of the gasoline on a carpeted staircase inside the club and hid the gas
container behind a planter at the top of the stairs.
The container was still more than half full of gasoline, prosecutors said.
Moments later, Masmari lit the gas on the
stairs and ran off from the club, prosecutors said. A U.S. Army staff
sergeant and an Air Force member quickly put out the fire before it
spread. The club’s sprinkler system activated, and no one was hurt.
Investigators identified Masmari from
surveillance videos and he was arrested on Feb. 1 as he was getting
ready to head to Sea-Tac Airport and board a flight out of the country.
Under the
terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors and Masmari’s defense agreed to
recommend a 5-year prison term with 5 years supervised release when Masmari is sentenced on July 31. However the judge is not bound by their recommendations and could sentence Masmari to up to 20 years in jail, prosecutors said.
“This defendant violated people’s right to
gather safely: he put more than 700 lives at risk when he purposely
started a fire at a crowded nightclub on New Year’s Eve,” Durkan said in
a press release. “Thankfully, the staff and patrons at Neighbours moved
quickly to evacuate the club and extinguish the flames.”
Will the judge rectify the prosecutors error? More: Man pleads guilty to arson at Seattle gay nightclub
A man accused of setting a fire inside a
crowded Capitol Hill gay nightclub on New Year’s Eve pleaded guilty to
arson this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Musab Mohammed Masmari,
30, was charged in a felony information in federal court yesterday after
previously having been charged with first-degree arson in King County
Superior Court.
He signed a plea agreement in which
federal prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to recommend a prison
sentence of five years, although the maximum penalty is 20
years. Sentencing is scheduled for July 31.
The federal takeover of the case lends
weight to allegations that Musmari’s crime is terrorism- or
hate-related. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd
Greenberg, who supervises the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He said the
motive for the arson will be addressed at Musmari’s sentencing.
A friend of Musmari contacted the FBI in
early January to say that he was concerned that Musmari “may be planning
some terrorist activity,” according to search-warrant documents filed
earlier in King County Superior Court. The friend, who was not
identified by authorities, worked as a confidential informant for the
FBI and Seattle police after the fire, the documents say.
The friend also told investigators that
Musmari, on a number of occasions, expressed his “distaste for
homosexual people” and thought they “should be exterminated,” the
documents said.
Police say that Musmari avoided a security
check at Neighbours by entering an adjacent bar called Therapy Lounge.
He then passed through an interior door between the bars into the
two-floor dance club and was seen on surveillance footage walking around
with an object that appeared large enough to contain a 1-gallon gas
can, according to the state charging documents.
Musmari allegedly fled the club within
seconds of flames first appearing on the footage, the papers say. Club
patrons and a bartender quickly doused the blaze with a fire
extinguisher.
There were more than 750 people inside the club that night, authorities said.
Police released grainy surveillance photos
of the suspect in January, and several people called in tips to police,
including the friend named in the warrant, according to information
presented in the arson case.
Days
before his arrest on Feb. 1, Musmari — who also goes by the surnames
Masmari and Al Masmari — booked a one-way flight to Turkey. He was arrested as he was preparing to leave for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, police said.
Musmari was born in California, but his family returned to Libya
when he was an infant; he came back to the United States permanently in
2009, according to charging paperwork filed in the arson case.
Backstory completely ignored by national media here.
Also note that the feds took over this case but refused to take the jihad attack on the Arkansas military recruiting center that killed one soldier and wounded another.
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