The images captured from the video surveillance camera at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo has lead to the arrest of 52 year old Randy Linn of Saint Joe, Indiana.
Linn was arrested in Fort Wayne without incident. He has since waived extradition and was brought back to Ohio by the Perrysburg Police on Wednesday(Oct. 3).
He is currently being held in the Wood County Jail on $400,000 bond. Linn faces numerous charges including first degree aggravated arson and aggravated burglary.
Plice have not released a possible motive for the arson.
Judy Trautman of the Multi Faith Council of NW Ohio says, "We don't know for sure that it's a hate crime, but it certainly has the marking of that."
She says that Toledo has a wide variety of religious faiths, and that everyone should be able to operate under their own guidelines.
Meanwhile, cleanup and repairs have begun at the mosque. And though it could be months before completion, the mosque's Imam remains positive.
"The building will stand up again and the cleanup will continue until we get the mosque to be active again," says Imam Farooq Abo Elzahab
He says their religion is not about violence, and crimes like this, if in fact it is a hate crime, does not have a place in any religion.
He says, "Evil is evil. It has no religion. It has no color. It has no ethnicity. So you can find that that is a human evil."
Now with the suspect behind bars, members of the mosque can move forward.
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