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.
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.”
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 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.
The affected businesses include Luichy’s Seaside Hotel, Marinera Restaurant, Artesanías Juavia and Bar Marea Restaurant, which rent space in the hotel’s building.
About 50 people who were staying there were evacuated, the restaurant’s post said.
The hotel’s owner, Ángel Luis Marrero, said in an interview with El Nuevo Día on Sunday that the fire caused damage estimated at $500,000 and affected the livelihoods of 15 employees.
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.”
