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.
A hotel building’s owner described the events as a “nightmare —then step by step you’re hit with the reality amid the screams.”
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.
Authorities in Puerto Rico said they are close to charging 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.”
‘Where are you — your hotel’s on fire’
The owner of the building says it sustained $500,000 in damages. It impacted his hotel, Luichy’s Seaside Hotel, and a few businesses he rents to: Marinera Restaurant, Artesanías Juavia and Bar Marea Restaurant.
The property owner, Ángel Luis Marrero Negrón, described how he found out about the fire and the devastation that ensued in a phone interview with NBC News on Wednesday morning.
“You leave your establishment happy to have celebrated Dec. 31 happy, with a full hotel…you go to your house in San Juan feeling calm,” he said, adding that hours later, the phone was ringing repeatedly and when answered he was asked ‘where are you — your hotel’s on fire.’”
Neighbors of the hotel texted him photos and videos of his property in flames as he raced back from San Juan.
“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions — not understanding why that woman did what she did to us; we are good people and we don’t harm anyone,” Marrero Negrón said.
“At first I thought, this can’t be,” the property owner said. “It felt like a nightmare, but little by little I’ve been hit with the reality.”
He said he’s trying to raise money through a GoFundMe page.
The Cabo Rojo mayor 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, Morales said. Later that night, after the businesses closed and everyone had gone home, reports of a fire began to emerge.
Morales said security video from one of the businesses allowed investigators to identify the suspect as the tourist who had been harassing people earlier in the night. She later left in a white car that picked her up, Morales said.
The restaurant, Bar Marea, said Thursday on Facebook that the tourist arrived at the business late at night and seemed to be intoxicated and “began to insult other patrons and even assaulted a woman and one of the servers.” Bar Marea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the businesses closed, the woman returned with gasoline, spread it around the area and lit it on fire, the post said.
About 50 people who were staying there were evacuated, the restaurant’s post said.
The suspect’s employer, HLK Agency, based in St. Louis, said in a statement on Instagram that it immediately suspended the employee pending further information.
“We were shocked to learn about the events in Puerto Rico. We have not yet been contacted by law enforcement in either Puerto Rico or Missouri but we are ready to cooperate in their investigation if asked,” the statement said.
A Cabo Rojo police representative told NBC News that “we are taking the necessary measures. There is an exhaustive investigation underway. I cannot give more information because I would be contaminating the investigation.”
