A Minneapolis man charged with setting fires at two Minneapolis mosques in 2023 pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal arson and hate crime charges. Jackie Rahm Little, who has a history of severe mental illness, appeared in court after U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery ruled that the 38-year-old was competent to proceed following treatment.
Little ignited a cardboard box in the bathroom of Masjid Omar Islamic Center inside a Somali mall on East 24th Street on April 23, 2023. The flames did not spread, and mosque members extinguished them.
The next day, a security camera recorded Little entering Masjid Al Rahma on Bloomington Avenue with a gasoline can just before flames erupted from the third floor.
The fire at Masjid Al Rahma, also known as Mercy Center, caused extensive damage, but no one was hurt. About 50 children were inside the mosque’s child care center at the time, but all got out safely, said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
After Wednesday’s hearing, Hussein told MPR News that he was at the mosque to discuss a public response to the Masjid Omar fire with other Muslim leaders when a man in the building alerted them to the fire.
“I thought he was mentioning the incident the day before,” Hussein said. “What really saved us were the quick actions of the individual who saw the fire, who also had the wits to run to the fire department, which is a neighbor of the mosque.”
Little appeared in court alongside defense attorney James Becker. Little pleaded guilty to both counts in the indictment: arson, as well as causing damage to religious property, which is a hate crime.
The arson count carries a five-year mandatory minimum under federal law. Little’s plea deal calls for 63 to 78 months in prison plus restitution payments totaling $378,000 to Mercy Center and its insurance company. The final decision on sentencing is up to Montgomery, who set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 20.
Little’s mental health and ability to understand the proceedings was Montgomery’s key concern at the sentencing hearing. Little has been subject to civil commitment orders in state court. From late 2020 until his arrest in the spring of 2023, he’d been in and out of jail, group homes, and hospitals.
After voluntarily seeking treatment multiple times, Little allegedly threatened another patient and threw objects while hospitalized at Mayo Clinic in 2021, according to court records. Later that year — after he was released from treatment — Hennepin County prosecutors charged Little with arson for allegedly setting a fire under a car parked near a Minneapolis apartment building from which he was evicted.
After undergoing treatment at a federal prison medical center in North Carolina, Montgomery ruled in May that Little was competent to be prosecuted and able to understand the charges against him.
Montgomery asked Little repeatedly Wednesday if he was feeling symptomatic and if his mind was clear. Little made eye contact with the judge and said he understood everything. “I’ve been stable for some time,” the defendant said.
Defense attorney James Becker said that Little’s schizophrenia was at the root of his actions, for which his client takes full responsibility. Since undergoing treatment, Becker told Montgomery that Little “does not contain an ounce of animus [toward Muslims] when in his right mind.”
The attacks renewed the fears of many Twin Cities Muslims who’ve been on edge since the 2017 firebombing of Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington by three domestic terrorists from Illinois, as well as dozens of incidents of vandalism at other mosques in the following years.
Hussein acknowledged that Little’s mental health challenges played a role in his crimes but do not excuse them.
“We hope that and our goal in this process is that he gets the treatment that he needs,” Hussein said. “But he’s still a threat to the community. Until we feel that there’s enough accountability, to be able to assure the public he will not be able to commit the same crimes over again.”
