A tourist in Puerto Rico is suspected of setting fire to a small hotel and restaurant, forcing people to flee in the middle of the night. The incident sparked outrage on the island and in the mainland US. Authorities are investigating and expect to file charges soon.
A small hotel and restaurant were among the businesses set on fire last week in the coastal town of Cabo Rojo, forcing people to flee in the middle of the night. Federal authorities executed a search warrant Tuesday in St. Louis in connection with an investigation in Puerto Rico of a tourist accused of setting businesses on fire last week. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in St. Louis is helping authorities in the U.S.
territory conduct an arson investigation, but no arrests have been made, spokesperson Lisa Storey told NBC News. A suspect in the incident, in which security cameras caught a tourist suspected of setting the fire, Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper, El Nuevo Día, reported Tuesday. Charges could come as soon as this week or next week, Lt. Miguel Rivera Sepúlveda of the Mayagüez Police Department’s explosives division told the newspaper. Videos and pictures of the incident have gone viral on social media, and it has sparked outrage among Puerto Ricans on the island and in the mainland United States. The incident took place early Thursday in the small coastal town of Cabo Rojo in the southwest part of the island. The woman, whom NBC News is not naming because she has not been charged or named in the ATF investigation, left Puerto Rico and was back in the mainland, authorities in the island said. “I wish they could have arrested her yesterday,” Cabo Rojo Mayor Jorge Morales Wiscovitch said. “She needs to be returned immediately and face the country’s justice system. It wasn’t just businesses that were burned. There were rooms on the second floor where people were sleeping. People could have been burned and killed.” Morales said the suspect is a tourist who had been at one of the businesses, the restaurant, and was harassing people. Police escorted her twice to the nearby Airbnb property where she was staying. Later that night, after the businesses closed and everyone had gone home, reports of a fire began to emerg
ARSON TOURISM PUERTO RICO INVESTIGATION OUTRAGE
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