Disrespect For Islam Angered Accused Double Murderer: Cops

TAMPA, FL — As the Tampa Police Department continues to investigate a Friday night double homicide, authorities have released information about the alleged motive in the case. Detectives say the man accused of shooting and killing his two roommates was upset over what he viewed as disrespect for his religion.

“When he was detained Friday evening, defendant Devon Arthurs claimed that the two roommates that he killed were neo-Nazis who disrespected Arthurs' recent conversion to Islam,” a Monday afternoon email from the police department said.

The FBI has also announced the arrest of another man Arthurs reportedly lived with on explosives charges.

Get the New Tampa Patch newsletter and alerts in your inbox.

Arthurs, 18, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder after police discovered the bodies of Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, in a condominium within The Hamptons on Amberly Drive Friday night.

When detectives interviewed Arthurs about the deaths of the two men, “Arthurs claimed that he and his roommates shared a common neo-Nazi belief, until Arthurs recently converted to Islam,” the police department wrote. The roommates allegedly “disrespected his Muslim faith.”

Arthurs also reportedly told detectives he was “angered by what he described as the world’s anti-Muslim sentiment and (that he) wanted to bring attention to his cause.”

The police department’s investigation of Arthurs began after the agency received a call about a man who was possibly armed inside a New Tampa store. Officers were called to the Green Planet Smoke Shop, 15325 Amberly Drive, around 5:28 p.m. May 19. When they arrived, they spoke with Arthurs and learned he was armed, an email from the agency said.

Arthurs “told two customers and an employee in the shop that they could not leave,” the email said. “The officers kept talking to Arthurs and he agreed to let the hostages leave and dropped his weapon.”

Police say Arthurs was taken into custody without incident. It was after he was in custody over the smoke shop incident, police say he directed them to a home inside The Hamptons, also in the 15300 block of Amberly Drive.

Police went inside the home and found two men dead from gunshot wounds. Concerns about possible explosives also brought out the Tampa Police bomb squad and Tampa Fire Rescue’s Hazmat team. Both teams worked into the night to make sure the condo was safe to enter.

Arthurs was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail early Saturday. He was being held Monday without bond. Additional charges, including armed kidnapping, had been filed by Monday.

Further information is not being released at this time. Police did say on Monday that information about Arthurs' arrest had been shared with the FBI.

Another roommate of Arthurs was arrested over the weekend in Key Largo. Brandon Russell, 21, was brought into custody by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office on Saturday. He was charged with possession of unregistered destructive devices and unlawful storage of explosives after the FBI and Tampa Police searched the home in The Hamptons following Friday's double homicide. According to a statement released by the FBI's Tampa office on Monday evening, Russell faces up to 11 years in federal prison if convicted on the charges.

"During a search of the apartment, law enforcement discovered a cooler in the garage containing the explosive HMTD (hexamethylenetriperoxide diamine), along with various explosive precursors in close proximity," the FBI's statement said. "Upon questioning, Russell admitted that he had manufactured the HMTD located in the garage."

Arthurs, the FBI's statement said, told investigators that he, the two deceased roommates and Russell once "shared common neo-Nazi beliefs, and that Russell participated in online neo-Nazi chat rooms where he threatened to kill people and bomb infrastructure."

The case against Russell remains under investigation.

Keep up with what’s happening by following New Tampa Patch on Facebook.

Booking photo courtesy of the Tampa Police Department