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Man Drives Truck Into Florida Mosque
TALLAHASSEE,
Fla. (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A man who said he was
motivated by hatred of Muslims drove a truck into a mosque near
Florida State University just 30 minutes before evening prayers,
police said Tuesday.
No one
was injured Monday in the Islamic Center of Tallahassee, but police
called in the bomb squad for precautionary measures, reports CNN.
Neighbors
called police around 7:30 p.m. after watching the man drive the
truck through the front of the building.
The
driver, Charles Franklin, 41, walked away after leaving the small
pickup wedged in the building's main entrance and escaping by
breaking out the back window of the truck. He was arrested later at
a campus bar after patrons called police.
Franklin
is being held on charges of burglary and criminal mischief, police
said.
Tallahassee
Police Lt. Edward Smith said the man was bleeding and telling people
in the bar that he had driven into the Islamic Center, reports CNN
Franklin
told officers he could have blown up the mosque if he had put
propane tanks on the front of his truck, and that he tried to join
the military in order to kill Muslims but was turned down, according
to a police news release.
Authorities
said a Bible wrapped in blue cloth was on the front seat of
Franklin's truck. And officers searching Franklin's Tallahassee home
found what they called a shrine in his back yard, said Smith,
reports news agencies.
Smith
told CNN that firefighters were concerned about suspicious items
found in the truck, including a bottle of liquid marked "holy
water."
An
armed personnel carrier pulled the truck out of the building, as
bomb squad members detonated items found in the truck. The items did
not turn out to be explosives or flammable materials, CNN reports.
Police
spokesman Scott Hunt said police believe it was an isolated case of
"one individual venting personal frustrations."
"Any
time you have someone drive a car into a building and leave the
scene, that's a serious act," Smith told the Tallahassee
Democrat. "But when you add in the factors of it's an
Islamic center and there are religious items in the truck of a
Christian nature, and you view all that through what happened on
9-11, we're concerned."
He
stated, "We believe this was a hate crime."
Hazim
Mohammed, president of the 1,000-member Islamic Center of
Tallahassee, said to the Democrat, "This is a very
serious issue…unless we know who did it, we can't speculate."
There are no reports as to the
extent of the damage at the mosque.
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