SUNRISE, Fla. – A Lighthouse Point woman was arrested Sunday after she threatened a Sunrise mosque with a hoax bomb, police said.
Sunrise police said Irina Bihary, 40, threatened worshipers at the Islamic Foundation of South Florida.
According to a police report, witnesses said they saw Bihary enter the prayer room at the mosque and pull out a brown paper bag and a cellphone with an exposed battery and two small wires extending out from it.
Witnesses said Bihary began asking questions about when other members would arrive and how many would be attending the prayer service. Witnesses said she told them that they were all going to die.
"I can't stand this place," Bihary said, according to the report. "I can't wait to knock it down."
Police said Bihary tried to drive away as officers arrived, but they stopped her in the parking lot.
The bomb squad was called and searched the premises, but no explosive device was found.
According to the report, Bihary told police that the members of the mosque "are all money-sucking parasites." Bihary said they killed her husband and aren't true Muslims, and she said the founder of the mosque was a killer.
"It is dangerous times, and we're worried that one of these threats might turn into something that is bad," Wilfredo Ruiz, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida, told Local 10 News.
Police said Bihary also faces a charge of criminal mischief after she kicked the back door of the police car. She was taken to a hospital to be evaluated under Florida's Baker Act law.