Police in Minnesota are recommending that a suspect arrested in connection with a synagogue fire last week be charged with arson — while saying they do not believe the act was a hate crime.
Matthew James Amiot, 36, was arrested on Friday in connection with the blaze that engulfed the Adas Yisrael shul in the city of Duluth last week.
By the time firefighters extinguished the blaze, the 119-year old synagogue had suffered major structural damage.
In a press conference on Sunday, Mike Tusken, the city’s police chief, said that while the department would recommend a charge of first degree arson, “based on all the information I have viewed, I have read, the investigators I’ve talked to, there is at this moment in time no reason to believe that this was a bias or hate crime.”
He did, however, state that “this may change as the investigation progresses.”
Duluth, with has a population of approximately 85,000 people, has just two synagogues.
However, Rabbi Philip Sher of the Adas Yisrael congregation said in Sunday’s press conference that he “would not speculate as to the man's motives”, stressing that the synagogue was “not out for vengeance.
"All I can find out of this event is sadness for everyone."
Rabbi Sher, who praised the firefighters' and police's heroism, described the situation for congregants as being “extremely difficult” but that the community would “forge ahead somehow.”
