Devon Arthurs had been living with roommates who he said he “shared a common neo-Nazi belief” with, up until he converted to Islam, and his roommates apparently did not respect his new religion.
Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, roommates to Arthurs, were discovered dead of gunshot wounds to their upper bodies and heads. Their bodies were discovered on Friday after Arthurs surrendered to police after he allegedly held two customers and an employee of Tampa’s Green Planet Smoke Shop hostage with a pistol.
Arthurs reportedly complained that Himmelman and Oneschuk had “disrespected his Muslim faith” and that he was upset by a global feeling against Muslims. He claimed that he wanted to draw attention to “his cause.”
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Now, Arthurs is facing two counts of murder, two counts of aggravated assault and three counts of armed kidnapping.
Brandon Russell, another alleged roommate of Arthurs’, was also arrested a day after returning home to find the two dead men. Police reportedly searched Russel’s house and garage and found bomb-making materials, which Russell claimed were for an engineering project that he had completed in 2013.
However, Arthurs said that Russell had “threatened to kill people and bomb infrastructure” and spent time in Neo-Nazi chat rooms.