Baltimore Police officers have arrested a 66-year-old man in connection with an arson attack outside the Jewish Museum of Maryland earlier this month, JNS reported Tuesday, citing a statement from the Baltimore Police Department.
The suspect, identified as Assadollah Hashemi, was arrested on Saturday, according to the report.
Hashemi, whom city SWAT officers arrested “without incident,” has “a history of fire-related crimes,” according to the department, which called the incident a “hate crime.”
Baltimore officers investigated an arson report at about 9:45 a.m. on August 8, according to the initial incident report. An officer heard from a site superintendent, who said he found “what appeared to be burnt material on the ground in front of the front entrance gate” at about 6:00 a.m. on August 5. The latter told police that he “later disposed of the burnt material.”
The museum’s deputy director told the officer that she and colleagues reviewed “on-site video surveillance, which showed an unknown individual exiting a vehicle” and walking “up to the front entrance gate” before placing “an unknown object on the ground.”
“This unknown individual is observed manipulating the object which then ignited into flames,” per the incident report, which the Baltimore Police Department provided to JNS. “The individual then returned to the vehicle and fled from the location.” A Baltimore City Fire Department engine had been dispatched to the site at about 10:45 p.m. on August 4 to “extinguish a fire,” per the report.
The museum, which has been closed to the public since June 12 and will remain closed until late 2024 for “a capital project”, sustained damage of over $1,000.
Antisemitism has been on the rise in the US and across the globe since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza which followed.
According to data published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in April, the Jewish community in the US experienced an unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents in 2023, far beyond any numerical data recorded in the last 45 years.