Plymouth man arrested, charged with arson following fires at two Minneapolis mosques

Jackie Rahm Little, also known as Joel Arthur Tueting, was apprehended and arrested Saturday night in Mankato by the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office. Little was taken into federal custody on Sunday by FBI and ATF agents, with assistance from the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments.

According to U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger, Little has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with arson following fires at two Minneapolis mosques.

Court documents allege that on April 23, 2023 at approximately 7 pm, Little started a fire in the bathroom of the Masjid Omar Islamic Center. Little entered the second-floor bathroom and lit a cardboard box inside a stall before being chased out of the building by an employee.

The next day, just before 7 pm, Little was captured on surveillance video entering the Masjid Al Rahma Mosque (also known as Mercy Islamic Center). At approximately 7 pm, a fire broke out on the third floor of the mosque. Everyone, including approximately forty children, evacuated the building.

The second fire likely totaled tens of thousands of dollars, according to court documents.

Court documents detail previous incidents believed to show probable cause. According to court documents, on December 30, 2022, the public email address for a U.S. Representative received an email from the email address ‘wewantjesusdead999@gmail.com’ that had an attached image depicting a Quran in a toilet being urinated on by a male. On December 31, another email was sent from the same account to the Congressional email account with an attached image of a bloody ear.

Court documents also describe incidents of spray-painting by Little on January 5, 2023. The criminal complaint says that at 11:30 am that morning, Little was “observed shoplifting or attempting to shoplift spray paint” from a Minneapolis Target.

According to the documents, at around noon the same day, Little was captured on surveillance video entering the Minneapolis district office of a U.S. Representative, located approximately two miles from the Target. Little spray-painted “500” on the front door of the office and photographed the graffiti. The identity of the U.S. Representative whose office was spray-painted has not been released.

The criminal complaint states that at approximately 6:16 pm the same day, Little spray-painted “500” on the side of a patrol vehicle assigned to a Somali Minneapolis Police Department officer.  At 9:10 pm, Little spray-painted the same text on an entryway at a marketplace, colloquially referred to as the “Somali Mall.” The mall is located in the same building as the Masjid Oman Islamic Center.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Minneapolis Police Department, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office, and the St. Paul Police Department, with assistance from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights and National Security Divisions, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

On Monday, May 1, Little will make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan Wright. Assistant U.S. Attorney Manda M. Sertich is prosecuting the case.

Little has a criminal history of arson, domestic assault, and other violent crime.