Friday evening, police arrested 18-year old Devon Arthurs after holding three people at gunpoint in a Tampa, Florida smoke shop.
What happened next was unprecedented.
While being arrested, Arthurs mentioned to police that the individuals in the apartment across the street were dead.
Upon arriving to the apartment, police found Arthurs’ roommates, Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, dead from gunshots wound to their upper bodies and heads.
Devon Arthurs then confessed to police that he killed his roommates, the men he claims he once bonded with over a “common neo-Nazi belief.”
That was until Devon Arthurs converted to Islam.
Angry at his roommates for he calls disrespect of his conversion and newfound faith, Arthurs executed the men.
It was early Friday evening that Arthurs entered the Green Planet Smoke Shope, flashing a gun and telling employees that he’d just kiled two people.
“He came in with a gun,” said Fadi Soufan, the store’s manager. “[He was] telling [the employees] the world’s corrupt, crazy stuff like that, and that he jut shot someone.”
During the altercation, Soufan was able to break away long enough to call police, but Devon Arthurs’ arrest was only the beginning of a larger conspiracy.
Upon first arriving at the apartment, a third roommate, 21-year old National Guardsman Brandon Russell was found at the door in tears.
“He doesn’t know what’s going on,” Arthurs confirmed to police.
A search of the apartment would reveal a host of neo-Nazi propaganda and explosives that would implicate Russell in federal charges brought on by the FBI.
Officers went on to discover bomb-making equipment in the garage, including fuses and a cooler containing a substance that bomb squad technicians identified as the explosive HMTD (hexamethylene triperoxide diamine).
Inside Russell’s bedroom, police found firearms, ammunition and propaganda that included a framed picture of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was sentenced to death after killing 168 in 1995.
The FBI swiftly obtained a warrant for Russell’s arrest for the possession of an unregistered destructive device and the unlawful storage of explosive material.
As for Devon Arthurs, he is currently being held without bail at Hillsborough County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and three counts of armed kidnapping. His first court hearing is schedule for today [May 24, 2017].
