FORT PIERCE, Fla. – The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office said they have arrested the man who is believed to have started a fire overnight Monday at the Fort Pierce mosque that the Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen previously attended.
Sources told WPBF that Joseph Michael Schreiber was arrested in downtown Fort Pierce near a pizza parlor.
Deputies raided his home Wednesday in Port Saint Lucie, where they said they found "anti-Muslim" items along with the motorcycle he is believed to have ridden to the mosque.
According to deputies, surveillance video shows Schreiber park his motorcycle outside the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce and approach the east side of the mosque on West Midway Road in White City just moments before a flash of fire is seen.
"As the individual was approaching the building, he was holding a bottle of some sort of fluid and what appeared to be some papers, or something like that," Maj. David Thompson said. "Shortly after the individual approached the building an immediate, very large flash was observed in the video footage. The male was then seen leaving the mosque in a hurry."
Authorities said anti-Islamic posts were found on Schreiber's social media accounts.
Rabbi Bruce Benson,of Temple Beth Israel met with Schreiber's father and said the incident was "completely out of left field."
Benson said he'd met the suspect a few times at temple to study, but never expected anything like this to happen.
People who live in the area told Local 10 News that some drive by the mosque honking and screaming ever since the Orlando nightclub massacre.
"People drive by honking, and cursing and flipping the bird to a building when people aren't even really there during the day, you know, and then you have to constantly deal with that. It's really sad," Parsons said.
Mateen had attended the Fort Pierce Islamic Center since 2003, Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman told CNN earlier this year. Rahman said Mateen had usually come for Friday prayers before the rampage at the Orlando nightclub on June 12 that killed 49 people.
Deputies said tips from the public helped lead to Schreiber's arrest.
Schreiber has recently been convicted and served time for petit theft and grand theft.