TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man has been arrested on charges that he helped start a fire that engulfed a building housing a Champs Sports store in Tampa during unrest that followed protests over the death of George Floyd in May, authorities said Monday.
Terrance Lee Hester surrendered to federal authorities in Oswego, New York, last week and is facing a charge of damaging or destroying by fire a building used in interstate commerce, according to federal prosecutors in Tampa.
Hester, 20, of Tampa, was identified in surveillance video as throwing a flaming piece of cloth into the Champs store through a broken window, according to a criminal complaint.
The damage to the sporting goods store and other businesses in the plaza was estimated at $1.2 million.
The Champs store was one of several businesses in a commercial district of Tampa that were damaged or looted following what had been a peaceful protest over the death of Floyd, who died in Minneapolis at the hands of police.
Earlier this month, a state prosecutor in Tampa filed rioting and looting charges against 57 people for ransacking stores, causing destruction and fighting with police officers that same night.
Hester on Monday was in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service awaiting transfer to Florida, according to online court records.
Hester hasn’t yet entered a plea since he is going to be removed to Florida to face the charge, said Gabrielle DiBella, an attorney with the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Syracuse, N.Y. who was appointed to represent him.
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