Arson

Two incidents in Rochester, New York and one in Detroit are being investigated as hate crimes.

When firefighters arrived they found not only the predominantly black church burning but a spray-painted slogan on its side.

The fire struck on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the beginning of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, as well as three months after the Orlando massacre.

One of the attackers pointed an aerosol can at the victim’s legs, sprayed them and then set him on fire.

The victim, 72-year-old John Williams, was in the process of obtaining a restraining order.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — South Africa’s controversial first gay-friendly mosque, which also allows Christian worshippers and women to lead prayers, was damaged by a fire overnight, its founder and the police said Saturday.

SEATTLE — A man who set fire to a crowded Seattle nightclub just after midnight on New Year’s Eve has pleaded guilty to a federal arson charge.

SEATTLE — The man accused of a setting fire to a gay nightclub on New Year’s Eve may have been provoked by an email he received from someone offering to be his sex “slave.”

MIAMI — A Florida man faces ten counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of arson for allegedly attempting to burn and kill a lesbian couple and their eight children.

SEATTLE — A 30-year-old man suspected of starting a fire at a crowded Seattle nightclub on New Year’s Eve has been arrested, police said Saturday.