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Investigators to speak with convict after suspicious mosque fire

KING 5 has learned a man convicted of setting fire to the Islamic Center of Eastside last year was picked up by police Thursday morning.
Seattle police and the Department of Corrections (DOC) arrested 37-year-old Isaac Wilson on parole violations Thursday morning, according to DOC Communications Director Jeremy Barclay. (Photo: KING)

Arson investigators are interested in speaking with a man convicted of setting fire to a Bellevue mosque last year after the Islamic Center of Eastside caught fire again Wednesday night.

Seattle police and the Department of Corrections (DOC) arrested 37-year-old Isaac Wilson on parole violations Thursday morning, according to DOC Communications Director Jeremy Barclay.

But Bellevue Police Department (BPD), the agency investigating the suspicious fire, said they are not calling Wilson a suspect.

A $1,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest and charges or a grand jury indictment against a person responsible for starting the fire.

"We've had cases where it goes one way, and then it suddenly goes another," said Seth Tyler, BPD spokesperson.

Tyler said they also have had reports of squatters in the building.

Wilson pled guilty to reckless burning in the January 2017 fire that gutted the building after initially being charged with arson. He was released on parole March 6, 2018, according to Barclay, who explained Wilson was picked up for violating the conditions of his release when he did not report into his community corrections officer March 20.

Ahmed Brown, a member of the mosque, said Wilson used to pray there but was trespassed from the property when he started acting irrationally.

"Enough to see he was clearly mentally off, he was mentally unwell," said Brown. "He was shouting and speaking to things at something that wasn't there."

Brown also did not want to jump to conclusions. He was worried more by the possibility someone else set the fire.

"If it's discovered that it's a different individual that did this as a targeted hate crime, that would be more disturbing," Brown said.

Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett will meet with members of the mosque this weekend to discuss the case.

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